Round table ColAAb, Librairie des Beaux-Arts de Paris

It was in the reception hall of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Paris that a round table discussion was held on Friday, June 30, organized by Aurélie Sarallier, creator of ColAAb. Following an invitation from Le Cercle Chromatique, Alumni des Beaux-Arts, the young house publishing everyday art took over the bookstore space for a few weeks: several design works created by Morgane Tschiember, Angelika Markul, Vincent Lamouroux, Sara Favriau, Nicolas Momein and Xiao Fan Ru will occupy the premises from June 1 to July 16, 2023.

The conference brought together the exhibiting artists as well as Nicolas Bourriaud, curator, former Director of the École des Beaux-Arts and renowned art critic, and Elvire Bonduelle, a visual artist and former student of the school. Hosted by Nicolas Bourriaud, this meeting focused on the relationship between art, design and architecture. What is a useful work of art? Functional? The answers given by the artists were also a way of revealing their artistic approaches, made concrete thanks to the support of ColAAb.

The question of the useful, the beautiful and the superfluous is omnipresent among artists and designers. Must a creation be useful to Society to be legitimate to exist? If the definition of a function makes it possible to satisfy a necessity, the needs of Man cannot however be restricted to their material character, because they are inevitably linked to an aesthetic and emotional dimension. Functionality cannot then be synonymous with utility with regard to the work of art, whether it is pictorial, sculptural, graphic or even conceptual. Design and architecture, for their part, make it their mission to combine the Beautiful and the functional, in order to interfere in our daily lives, replacing purely functional objects with creations that are as practical as they are poetic.

Standardization is also at the heart of the reflections of the artists represented by ColAAb, who each in their own way give life to furniture whose forms derive from travel memories, personal experiences, and past, circumvented problems.

For Angelika Markul, the magic of art makes it possible to bring a piece of the impossible back home, as illustrated by her Tchouri coffee table with the appearance of a comet. Sara Favriau, for her part, shared her relationship with nature, the inspirations she draws directly from the field to give birth to delicate mural and plant creations, entitled And if ever the sky is a place called, I see it again near the forehead.

In the Private Choice 2023 selection, you will notably find the La Voie d’or table by Xiao Fan Ru, the Shibari stool stools by Morgane Tschiember, whose wood seems deformed by the rope – which has become the emblematic element of her work – or even the modular and circular Orbis bookcase by Vincent Lamouroux, designed as a protective rampart near which the reader could indulge in his activity in complete serenity.

The works mentioned are exhibited at the Librairie des Beaux-Arts, 13 quai Malaquais, 75006 Paris, until July 16, as well as at the Private Choice event between October 15 and 22, 2023.

Julie Merle