As a child, I was a handyman, I always made things with my hands. When I was eleven, my parents gave me a workbench. Later, in business school, I continued to be the one who did the party decorations… I always had this desire.

I have always been strong in math, and it is an essential subject for this job. I check it every day, my technically strongest collaborators, or those who have the most sense of logic, are former mathematicians. In France, we think that doing a general baccalaureate does not lead to an art school. A path that would rather be intended for bad students. It is a mistake ! My other strong subject was synthesis. I have kept an appetite for complex subjects, which is a strength when it comes to responding to difficult briefs. As a result, my design is both full of fantasy and rigor, delicacy and strength. Many oxymorons for a design that is both danceable and solid.

At 27, I was older than those who usually start in this profession, so I already knew where I wanted to go. When I decided to become a designer, all the paths taken previously led me there naturally. I also have a great capacity for work and am very organized. My first published objects were also creations from my student years, so I saved time. Then, I was very lucky and I met the right people.

It's actually quite a broad word, but it's inherent in the exercise. It is a polymorphic practice. Design is also a way of being and thinking, a way of working when faced with a problem: knowing how to analyze, consider uses, show empathy. The zero level of the designer's job is really empathy! This ability to put oneself in the place of others. Then there is an iterative process which is extremely important: try, retry, put yourself in the place, start over, make it real. It's a job that requires a lot of humility, because you make a lot of mistakes. The right approach is often a mix of candor and experience.

The designer is in a process of correcting the reality that surrounds him. A desire for an object arises from a bad resolution. Because we don't have fun making an object if we don't think we can do better! I find the world to be full of pretty aggressive objects. They lack delicacy… Most often they are object-tools that offer no springboard to the imagination. To design is to try to improve the construction of the world. Staying humble...

I'm going to give you a classic answer: my first creation, the "Vertigo". It is an object that is both contemporary and timeless. What I like is when objects really surprise me. When I am surprised by the object itself, I tell myself that there is something that still escapes me. And this is the case of “Vertigo”.

Yes ! Still a student at ENSCI, I had to design a cabin to build yourself. I imagined walls from Ikea shelves, but I had to add a roof for which I chose a lampshade that I braided. But it was small and not necessarily beautiful… So I wanted to lengthen the lampshade, enlarge it by pulling a little on the sides… The ribbons and rubber bands that I had chosen twisted with the tension. It became the “Vertigo” suspension that we know, published a few years later by La Petite Friture.

Angelin Preljocaj did not know me. He had read an article following my exhibition at Villa Noailles. At the time, I was presenting a project called "Funambule" and was looking for a designer to create the scenography for the Tightrope walker by Jean Genet. I had just left school, I had no self-confidence… It was much later that I found out that he had chosen me for my energy. As I am joyful and very combative, I don't give up and that's what pleased him. I learned a lot from this experience whether it was about light, space, the temporality of a show, the staging... There is nothing more exciting than live performance, and at the same time nothing is more difficult than the scene. This search for balance in the face of so many uncertainties and under enormous constraints. So when it works it's strong.

Once you depend on a publisher, it's complex. Because the editing process is very long, sometimes frustrating. There are many designers and there is little space. I'm like everyone else: I have a lot of trouble getting my objects edited. I easily compete. And yet, of course, I know that it's much easier for me than for others… This return to a form of craftsmanship shows that we are once again accepting imperfection. As if the pendulum had tilted very strongly to one side, that is to say towards the perfection of the industrial object, after having swung strongly to the other side, before the industrialist appeared. Today, we have to find the balance between these two processes. Because we will never be able to create an affordable design with handmade objects.

I take great pleasure in working with craftsmen, by creating vases for example, or by making theater sets. I like the idea of ​​finding faults, irregularities. I have long been a supporter of asymmetry, which gives a lot of life to objects, but my job as a designer obliges me to perfection. It's at home, at home, that I find my share of freedom and that I rediscover the spirit of “tinkering”, by making ceramics for example.

Designers have always been on the front line on the ecological question. For years, I had the feeling of not being listened to on this subject, but the current context means that this is no longer the case today. When I create an object, my first instinct is to find out how to optimize so as not to have scraps. It also happened to me to refuse collaborations because the objects had to be made with certain types of materials such as plastic. Finally, I often do “upcycling”, without necessarily communicating about it. So I'm already in these issues without being in a spirit of punishment. When you adopt this type of approach it is important to try to make even more beautiful objects. I'm not saying that I succeed all the time, but you have to try. To be even better in these new ways of doing things. The other thing that has changed a lot is our relationship to travel: before, we flew to the other side of the world for a one-hour meeting or to see a prototype. Today, we understood that this was not the right method. It's better, and in fact we look at the world differently.

I am a deeply happy person. Obviously, I'm worried about my children, about the future… But I'm not going to lie to you: there's always something inside me that can't help moving forward in a positive way. It's not unconscious optimism, my studies have led me to have a geopolitical conscience. At the same time I want to transmit light, the one I have in me, because, in a way, it's my job! We all try to do what we're not bad at. I try to bring light and intelligence into objects, to make them lighter, more logical, more approachable.

The exhibition is called " Surprise party ". The selection of objects is a manifesto of joy, poetry and delicacy. Delicacy is a word that I really like and that I try to instil in my work. You have to imagine a space with white objects and colored windows. The light will therefore come to color the objects by filtering through the panes, and also by being reflected on a disco ball animated by an extremely slow, almost impalpable movement. It is therefore a delicate and joyful staging. An exhibition full of promise too since future projects and drawings in progress will be presented. I have fun ! I love the show so much. I take real pleasure in involving others in a story and a universe. With few things… Here a disco ball and light.

Photo ©CharlotteRobin