Made in Situ by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance
Azulejos, Bronze & Beeswax, Chêne & Liège
May 16 – June 29, 2024
Opening | Thu, May 16, 2024 from 6-8pm
RSVP: info@demischdanant.com
Exhibition Tour with Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance | Fri, May 17, 2024, 2pm
Limited tickets available.
RSVP Essential: info@demischdanant.com
On the occasion of the upcoming edition of NYCxDesign, Demisch Danant is proud to welcome back acclaimed French designer, Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance who will present for the second consecutive year a selection of works from Made in Situ, his Paris and Lisbon-based project that advocates for a practice rooted in a given territory, exploring its materials, artisans, craftsmanship and cultural vernacular.
A dynamic examination of the exchange between person and place, Made in Situ is a series of cross-disciplinary works in conversation with nature, feeling, and materiality. For five years, Duchaufour-Lawrance has been living and working between Lisbon and Paris, developing these poetically site-specific collections alongside local artisans and craftspeople. His collections serve as testaments to time spent truly discovering a place, its people, and their history. Inscribed and contextualized, the creations that make up its collections are considered and, hence, more conscious. Each of them does not just tell the story of a place and its inhabitants, it expresses what unites them.
My approach has been reversed. The idea no longer creates the piece of furniture or the object, it is the practice of the artisan and his knowledge of the material, which determines or imposes it. By moving from one design to another, as a designer I became more like a translator —Duchaufour-Lawrance.
After a first standalone Made in Situ exhibition in New York in the fall of 2022 alongside two presentations in Paris at and during Design Miami/ Paris this past October, Demisch Danant and Duchaufour-Lawrance come together again for this showcase, bound by a shared admiration for narrative-driven design and material-forward conception. Highly respected for their meticulous curation of innovative twentieth-century design, Demisch Danant’s presentation of Made in Situ speaks to their respect for the artistry and perspective of Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, a rare contemporary amongst their roster of historical greats.
Made in Situ has its origins in the very definition of the Latin expression in situ, a direct reference to the capacity of design to act as a vector, reconnecting us with our surroundings. The associated drawings, texts, photographs and films presented alongside the works play an important role in understanding the creative process; these artifacts become the recorded memory of the experiences generated by the project. Echoing the inherent essence of the collections, the exhibition space is filled with noble and timeless materials, sounds, scents and images. Through contact with the selected materials, the visitor is transported into a sensory universe conducive to the discovery of new geographies. The collections and works can be discovered, in situ, like authentic travel diaries, each one with its own distinctive features.
My work lies at the crossroads of space design and object creation,” adds the designer. “I want to get away from the constraints of production and rationality: for me, each project is an opportunity to write a unique scenario
On view at Demisch Danant, Made in Situ by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance will present works from the collections Azulejos, Bronze & Beeswax, and Chêne & Liège.
Azulejos
A significant chapter in Noé’s exploration of Portuguese crafts, ‘Azulejos’ takes its name from the Portuguese word for tiles – a 500-year tradition whose historical and cultural dimensions are lost in translation.
A personal interpretation of the coast between Brittany and Lisbon, ‘Azulejos’ is a set of three unconventional pieces where long, narrow azulejos, painted and shaped to evoke the changing depth and colors of the sea, lap against a shore of naked black ceramics. The undulating stand-alone wood screens are reminiscent of the structures of boats; the painting is a result of Noé’s free experimentation with colors and materials, a process of letting go and allowing the materials to express their own truth.
Born from the Azulejos panels, a new chapter arises: Memory Islands, a representation of six pinpointed locations stretching along the coastline of Brittany to Lisbon through unique pieces of furniture. A transformative experience that delves into the meaning and materialization of memories and the connection to the mighty ocean.
Bronze & Beeswax
Made in Situ can be described as a series of encounters which are unexpected and lead to the creation of a design object, which is then associated with a personality, a place and, as a result, enriched with a history that it is charged with conveying onwards. The bronze candle holders were created following a visit to a boat propeller factory in Peniche, Portugal. The candles, in contrast, are the result of an extensive treasure hunt, starting with a manufacturer in the Fátima region and ending with a beekeeper in the village of Nisa, who supplied the wax. It is the design objects themselves that perpetuate this dialogue. Once heated, the wax from the candles used in the ‘Flux’ candle holder flows into a meticulously curved channel, and is then collected, solidifying directly in the bronze. None of the materials are lost, especially not the wax, which is under threat from the progressive disappearance of bees. Every element is combined into a single body of surprising shapes. Similarly, for 'Lux', the glow of the flame, reflected on the bronze surfaces, morphs into shifting patterns that become part of this endless cycle of creation.
Chêne & Liège
The first collection by Made in Situ produced in France, the “Chêne & Liège” project is very much embedded in the ‘massif des Maures’ nature reserve. The concept is based on the specific properties of its endemic and emblematic tree: the cork oak. Naturally fire-resistant, the bark of this species is an effective ally against the fires that occur more and more frequently and on an ever-increasing scale in the region. However, once covered in soot – if it is not removed – this bark, which is otherwise so protective, asphyxiates the tree, causing it to die. With the help of a lumberjack, a cork harvester, a woodworker and a craftsman, “Chêne & Liège” aims to embody this dual identity through an amalgamation of the wood from the burnt cork oak trunks and the healthy bark still harvested by one of the last specialist companies in the Var. Together, the wood salvaged from the flames and the healthy bark create furniture of a paradoxical nature that is crafted with an awareness of social and environmental issues.
Made in Situ by Noé Duchaufour Lawrance will be on view at Demisch Danant from Thursday, May 16 to Saturday, June 29, 2024.