TRAVELER’S DIARY-Paris III:Musée des Arts Décoratifs

For me it was one of the most difficult exhibitions. Not so much in terms of understanding, on the contrary, it was terribly impressive. While the first part of the exhibition “Constance Guisset Design, Actio!”, is somewhat uneven since contemporary design is nested into the Collection of icons and classic baroque pieces that characterize the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which is a continuation of the Musée du Louvre building.

By Efi Michalarou

But it was an extremely difficult exhibition in its second part, because the first part puzzled all of us and we were deeply disappointed (!), but its second part was fascinatingly, charming, therefore dangerously easy. That was the reason why I visited three times the exhibition to decide and find out where the Sirens were hiding (The mythical and dangerous creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and singing voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island). The French designer Constance Guisse (born 1976), lives and works in Paris. After studying economics and business at ESSEC and IEP Paris, then a year at the Parliament of Tokyo, she chose to turn to creation. She graduated in 2007 from ENSCI-Les Ateliers and founded her own studio. She quickly won various recognitions, in 2008 she was awarded the Grand Prix du Design de la Ville de Paris, the Prix du Public at the Design Parade festival at Villa Noailles and received two project grants from VIA. In 2010 she was elected “Designer of the Year” at the Salon Maison & Objets and won the Audi Talents Award. In 2009 she founded Constance Guisset Studio, whose team of designers and architects specialises in design, interior architecture and scenography.

Her work revolves around a questioning on visual illusion and surprise and focuses on the creation of objects in motion, in order to create a constant surprise or a fascinating charm. This is exactly where the second part of the exhibition begins. The viewer enters a dark room with the walls painted blue-black and matching carpeting, where left and right at different heights her “Vertigo lamps” are rotating, enormous lamps that allow-encourage with the help of a meditative music the visitor to walk among them and discover the mottos and the integrals that are written on the walls as with white chalk. Then Constance Guisset in the next two rooms, as an extension of the entrance, from the complete abstraction and minimalism, creates left and right two rooms with full detail, like yin and yang, female on the right and male on left side. A hallway with scale models, sketches, notes, short videos and watercolors-drawings runs through the space where the windows play the role of the glass wall, in every room of the hallway’s right side the surprises succeeds one another, because in front of each window is set up in the form of installation-sculpture a large object of contemporary design, with the buildings of the Louvre as background. Nevertheless, the most impressive for the viewer is that the walls have infinite holes and look like a construction site, also the wooden floors have a large painted black square piece where are on view: stools-lamps-tables or chairs. The fireplaces are completely stripped, so a contemporary dimension is created in the space, where the visitor wonders whether it is for the sake of the exhibition or because are done repairs at the Museum, are these the appropriate condition to host this exhibition? Certainly the result is impressive, as is and in the rooms on the left wing where the view from the windows at Rue de Rivoli does not create such a large and striking contrast. It’s truly a really good exhibition, very well set-up, not easy and raises a number of concerns and questions about the position of contemporary design in places where their architectural structure carries a long history. My only objection is that the rooms were filled so much with objects that while their image was contemporary, the created a result that eventually was baroque. Although on the one hand the designer seems to have been influenced a lot from the Japanese way of thinking and embraced their minimalism, on the other, from this exhibition as well as and from others that I have visited, but also from the long videos, I feel like the French, who have a deep culture, have transfered the weight of literature and philosophy into contemporary art and contemporary way of thinking. However, the exit from the anteroom with the rotating lights of the exhibition, the meditative music and the subdued lighting, finally compensate you!!! For those who will in Paris 11/3/18, don’t miss it is a real experience (!)

Info: Musée des Arts Décoratifs, 107 rue de Rivoli, Paris, Duration: 14/11/17-11/3/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-18:00, http://madparis.fr