As entertaining as art can be, my heart belongs to the kind of work that involves texture and makes you want to touch and feel it so bad that if you don’t do it, you feel like you have missed something. Difficult to explain but I think some (weirdos) understand what I mean.
The Nomad exhibition at La Vigie in Monaco was the place to go to explore the boundaries between architecture, design and art. As we entered the villa that was exceptionally opened for the first time to this very special event, I instantly felt very comfortable with the setting and the environment. Revisiting the classic idea of fairs and exhibitions, Nomad made us travel from one elegant room to another to discover a selection of the world’s leading galleries in a very personal context. The organizers only gave access to journalists and VIPs from the art world so everybody could spend quality time looking, touching and discussing about the pieces. The space allowed us to take good pictures without capturing other guests.
Among the wonderful pieces, Odd Matter’s sculptural “100 Hours bench” was my favourite one. Maybe because it seems to feature something that feels like feminine and romantic to me. SEEDS gallery perfectly associated it with Jochen Holz’s Cumuliform light installation.
With 100 Hours, Odd Matter created a very intuitive way of interacting with a material thus shaping the object freely before allowing the tool to do the same. Each piece is instinctively hand shaped, without the use of tools or technical drawings before solidifying its shape and final texture in the galvanic bath.
Cumuliform is a neon light chandelier made using free blown, oversized borosilicate tubing to create a unique immersive light environment. Like luminous clouds, the organically shaped wide diameter tubing emits a mesmerising fluffy light and subtle changes of tonal and reflective qualities.
Because of its beautiful design and colours, I feel in love with Studio MVW’s Jinshi Pink Jade Coffee Table. Made of exceptional natural gemstone pink jade, this table as well as all the ‘JINSHI’ collection offers an interplay of curves and lines that defines a minimalist balance of forms while the sensuality of pink jade offers a refinement that is unique in today’s furniture design.
The last work is certainly the one which perhaps impressed me the most. KO-TONE SPIRAL XYLOPHONE スパイラル木琴, cerated by dir_is, is a physical automatic music playing device that does not use electricity and plays music with just natural energy coming from wood. Dir_ is works with the philosophy: ‘What is invisible is the most profound’. As such, they believe the most important things in life are invisible. With the timber of this art piece that requires no electricity, they want to make this society feel something from it.
