Paris by bike in a time of strike…
Passing by the Mobilier National warehouse, then swinging up under the elevated line... will actually shave a mile off my return journey, I pragmatically assure myself, slip the phone in my coat pocket, kick the pedal up and wobble off.
The reduction of my trip by a whole mile is much easier to explain than any product discount ever will be: distance is experience and, so, also elastic.
As I pedal along in my chosen city in its time of strikes, the usual nauseating taste of burnt petroleum byproduct gathering on my tongue, I am thinking that it is actually legal to make and sell and profit from whatever environmentally poisonous thing you want. Yet there are those who smirk and jeer at the naïve syllogism “distance is experience and experience is elastic”. Drôle de world, ours.
In no time at all, the Mobilier National (at 1, rue Berbier du Mets) slides into view.
Mobilier National keeps on keeping on, having improvised itself through changes of dynasty, epoch and régime, massacre and siege, real and farcical revolution, coups d’état, budget cutbacks and pension reform. So, now, in addition to moving around the trappings of government, it runs the renowned tapestry and rug manufactures of the Gobelins, Beauvais and the Savonnerie, along with the national lace works in Puy-en-Vélay and Alençon. And, since France has long been a very strong – maybe the strongest global player in luxuries and luxury equipment and technique – think wine or … perfume bottles or … food logistics – Mobilier National also encourages and supports innovation in textile conception and production.The agency is to France what the US federal General Services Administration’s “Department, Sub, for Furnishings, Historical” would be had GSA been founded to serve the needs of an improvised medieval court.
Housed in one of the finest and first examples of building with concrete (with an art deco style), Mobilier National is the state agency that provides classy furnishings to institutions such as ministries or embassies. Mobilier also develops techniques and technology around art conservation and restoration.
This past Fall, the innovation-support arm of the agency held its first public show of projects in hand: Prière de toucher le fil (“Please touch the thread”).
In addition to a monumental staircase (in case a medieval king-equivalent shows up, I reckon), false and real walls, corridors leading through architectural terrains vagues and discrete health and safety advice, there is sturdy three-tier shelving spread over three full walls. In the tiers, often wrapped in half an acre of bubble wrap, a visitor can’t help noticing – and wandering over to take a close look – at the love seats, chairs and occasional tables of well-upholstered eras past.Since 1, rue Berbier du Mets is a working warehouse, administrative center and now an arts de vivre showcase all in one, the exhibit space has an Ikea-on-Louvre air.
For those who fear President Emmanuel Macron’s monarchical tendencies, I can report that Napoleon’s seat – along with its imperial numen – remains unclaimed and undisturbed.
Prière de toucher le fil – three installations showing off fabric embedded with ultrathin copper threads that, basically, make a touch screen out of the fabric– brought together Mobilier National’s expertise in Jacquard-technique weaving and Google-sponsored innovation in capacitance and capacitor technology.
Amor Munoz’s “Notes and folds” turned around player piano spools whose format creates an axis on which computer coding, music production and tactility come together.
An interactive “meditation walk” combining touch & sound with light, “Tree of Light”, designed by the collective Oma Space (Jang Jiu, Daniel Kapelian & Gil Kyoung) opened exploration of the technology’s possibilities. Different musical chords marked the moment as, led forward by a firefly light, the visitor’s bare foot found purchase on, among many different textures, a bark or silk or straw step.
Chloé Bensahel’s “Words weave Worlds” closed the show with a meditation on words and touch – stroking, poking or touching words produced different sounds, with different emotional resonances to the word.
In a word, Prière de toucher le fil was something unique – a way to understanding technology through the esthetics of sight, sound and touch. I am waiting on Mobilier National’s second exhibition. And so should you.
All the installations were created in cooperation with Google engineers during a Google Arts & Culture artist residency.
Comments