Not only has Matali successfully managed to recreate a lush Arabic hotel inspired by Tunisia—in Queens, NY no less—she has also designed a playful world for children for the 104 CENT QUATRE, located in Paris. The play world, The Maison des Petits, “is a place for meeting and mediation where people come to become familiar with artistic practices (the resident artists propose devices for children’s use) and an area for discovery, encounters and listening. This area proposes a new logic for creating a suspended time full of surprises and discoveries.” (Dezeen online article, 5/28/09)
Although Matali spent her youth in a small farming village in the North of France, she has certainly found inspiration in the world at large. She has won countless awards for her innovation and exploration in the interior design field. Her current projects include a hotel opening in the Bastille neighborhood of Paris as well as her “Spring Skin” exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. Ironically, those are the two cities that link the authors of this blog!
It seems that Matali’s main goal with her art is to question the typical forces that bind us and look beyond the more obvious networks of communication between human beings. She somehow manages to transform everyday objects into things that are only found in her imagination. Therefore, it is no wonder that “it is easy for [her] to get wrapped up in her [own] world.” But when Matali manages to produce images and objects from her world, we are all the richer for it. Her productions can range from objects inspired by nature (roots rug) to the futuristic Phytolab, an elegant acrylic room-sized cube dotted with potted plants which is one of three bathing spaces designed by Matali for Dornbracht. It “looks like a rational solution to the practical problem of how to create a pleasurable place to bathe in an open-plan home, particularly one too cramped to squeeze in a bathroom” (Design Museum).
I, for one, am very excited to head to the Art Institute of Chicago to check out the “Spring Skin” collection. And RetroAndFuture.com will keep reporting on all of Matali’s upcoming projects!
http://www.matalicrasset.com/
Carolyn Breit
