Seven Rising Talents exhibition at Maison & Objet 2024, installation by Emma Cogné – Photos by ©Anne-Emmanuelle Thion, courtesy of M&O.

Design – New technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and 3D printing raise several questions: Hasn’t the excellence of the art of the hand been called into question? Will the machine replace man? In line with Tech-Eden, the main theme of Maison & Objet 2024, the Parisian fair honours seven rising talents who see in the dialogue between traditional know-how and digital performance an infinite field of action that increases their creativity tenfold.

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Audrey Large

French designer Audrey Large creates 3D-printed sculptures exploring the relationship between our virtual and physical worlds. Each design offers a fluid silhouette with iridescent purple surfaces and a liquid-looking texture that resembles molten lava.

“My aesthetic choices disturb perception. They have to be read on two levels: the image and the material.” Explains Audrey Large. “I try to materialise the perceptive properties of the image with blurred, iridescent contours and constantly changing surfaces. My objects are not immediately useful, even if they are tables or chandeliers. The shapes are never completely abstract. They seem unreal. I like to play with these contradictions.”

Line & Raphaël

Line & Raphaël studio by Raphaël Cuevas and Line Perron combines an ancient craft, cabinet making, with 3D printing. “We’ve taken marquetry from 2D to 3D to create more complex shapes. Our handcrafted furniture is like a painting in relief. Once the motif has been established, Line codes everything to make a digital cut, which saves us time and allows us to duplicate the models.”

According to the designers, 3D liberates drawing. “It opens up a whole new world of possibilities. We still have a lot to explore,” says Raphaël Cuevas. At Maison & Objet, we present several samples of our materials, with patterns and designs in marquetry presented like paintings.

Aurélie Hoegy

Aurélie Hoegy is a Paris-based artist and designer working with rattan fibres to create unique pieces able to speak of craftsmanship and innovation at the same time. “I make the pieces entirely by hand in my workshop, sometimes working with engineers, choreographers and even hairdressers. Before sculpting each piece, I make models, but in a traditional manner. I use a 3D printer to design or adapt my tools to the specific nature of the material and my parts.”

“When I go to scale 1, I consider both the natural and mechanical reactions of the fibre, letting it live and express itself. It is a collaboration!” She creates a living design: the hand and the unexpected reactions of the rattan give it a unique vibrancy.

Emma Cogné

Belgian artist and designer Emma Cogné weaves plastic tubes collected from the street, building sites or factories. “The polypropylene sheaths I use are designed to protect the electrical wires in our homes. They are part of invisible elements hidden in walls and floors. I reintegrate them into interiors by giving them an ornamental dimension.”

“By weaving recycled pipes, I’ve chosen a basic material and a process that doesn’t require any machinery, not even a loom. You could say that my production method is low-tech. It’s a process of technology in reverse because I only work with mass-produced materials, giving them a different narrative.”

IO – Index Office

Founded by Nelson Fossey in 2019, Index Office is a design studio bridging design, craftsmanship and digital manufacturing. “Our ambition is to use contemporary modelling and manufacturing tools to integrate them into industrial or craft design processes.” Says the designer. At Maison & Objet, IO presents the Orbe lamp with a cylindrical base on which a spherical luminous swivel head sits like a whirligig.

The IO Lamp is a lighting system that can be easily dismantled and recycled using PLA, a bioplastic material derived from plants. “Each piece is printed on-demand in our workshop. Being able to manufacture simply changes values. Today’s tools make it possible to imagine made-to-measure solutions. Instead of sending materials to the other side of the world, we could, for example, send a simple digital file, giving new meaning to local manufacturing.”

WINT Design Lab

From robotic paper sculptures to future-proof regenerative clothes. WINT Design Lab is a Berlin-based studio laboratory enabling researchers of all disciplines to envisage real-life scenarios based on state-of-the-art research,” the founders Felix Rasehorn and Robin Hoske explain. For example, they have developed a running jacket made from collagen, a waterproof, lightweight and recyclable biomaterial made from cows’ intestinal tissue.

“At Maison & Objet, we present our proposal of coupling furniture with a digital twin to augment the physical object. By personalising the digital twin over time, people become attached to and care more about their objects instead of throwing them away. Because the most sustainable objects are the ones that stay in use.”

Jenna Kaës

French artist Jenna Kaës studies the spiritual dimension of objects. She wants to follow in the tradition of the decorative arts, with a predilection for funerary art, a theme that is still taboo and little explored today. In Paris, she presents bronze rings inspired by those found in Egyptian and Chinese tombs and blankets made in collaboration with the Carmelite sisters from the convent in Verdun, France.

“I have a real interest in technique. At the moment, I’m working with two other designers on a possible reinterpretation of the Rococo style, using plants that we stretch using 3D software to give them ethereal, fanciful shapes.”

Seven rising talents at M&O, cabinet by Line & Raphaël.

Seven Rising Talents exhibition at Maison & Objet 2024. All photos by ©Anne-Emmanuelle Thion, courtesy of M&O 2024.