Gien designer profiled in New York Times
November 10, 2010
Patrick Jouin on Reconciling Functionality With Aesthetics
By TIM McKEOUGH
Patrick Jouin, the Paris-based designer, has a diverse portfolio that includes hotels, lamps and space age-like furniture made with a process known as "selective laser sintering." And a surprising number of his projects are food-related — restaurant interiors for Alain Ducasse, a pasta pot and cutting board for Alessi, flatware for Puiforcat, a special spreader for Nutella, and a Champagne bucket and saber for Mumm, to name a few. Many of these objects are now on display in Manhattan, at the Museum of Arts and Design, in "Patrick Jouin: Design and Gesture," an exhibition that runs through Feb. 6.
What's the idea behind this show?
I've had other exhibitions, and sometimes I wished people could touch the objects. They are simple objects — a casserole, a chair, a fork — that are made to be used. But if we just exhibit the objects normally, there is a distance from them. Usage is a big part of design, and maybe you will not understand the shape and why it's designed the way it is. So, I wanted to show the object and also a little movie. It's very simple, with hands that come and pick up the object, take it and use it, so you understand why it has this shape.
Does that mean people will be able to pick up the objects?
No, it's always the same — it's a museum, and you can't. So they keep their status as museum objects, but they are alive. It's more to understand what is in our minds — we don't design objects just for the pleasure of aesthetic form or style. There is always the back-and-forth between the constraints of construction, usage and our goal of beauty.
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new york times
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