Galleries are one of the strongest links in design. There are many on the market and the Covid-19 crisis has forced them to react in order to survive, or even to develop even more. Among design specialists, Galerie Kreo is one of the unmissable events.
Rue Dauphine, the Galerie Kreo is spread over a vast space of 550 m 2. . Like her peers, she postponed certain monographic exhibitions (Marc Newson, Barber Osgerby) to a later date, but she is still there full of energy and full of desires, thanks to her founders Didier Krzentowski and his wife Clémence.
In 1999, they opened in Paris in the 13 e district, rue Louise Weiss, a 250 m gallery 2 with a unique feature: to work only with designers already recognized by the industry. If art does not imply constraint and leaves the artist free to express himself, the industry constrains the designer in his creative work.
The small space on rue Louise Weiss was the ideal setting to carry out projects that would never have seen the light of day, such as the research on concrete tables by Martin Szekely or concrete rocks by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. Marc Newson finalized his “Chop top” table in aluminum.
“ When I see a young designer , says Didier Krzentowski, I ask him to construct a discourse for me which does not exist but which can convince me and convince the buyers who support me. “. This is how the Icelandic Brynjar Sigurdarson was able to exhibit his table “The Silent Village Round” and present it at the same time as his search for a missing identity to a quality clientele.
The Kreo gallery is 20 years old and 66% of its proposals concern contemporary design, small editions of 8 + 2 + 2 set up by Didier himself, to better remunerate author designers.
Young people, Didier Krzentowski, rubs shoulders with them at the gallery, live. Its 12 employees are all in their thirties. They practice social networks shamelessly and visitors enter galleries with all the more envy they find the space “cool”. His neighbor Kamel Mennour, rue Saint-André-des-Arts, was the subject of a frenzy on Instagram by exposing Philippe Parreno and Daniel Buren. A video on TikTok has brought him new followers who may not know who designs the pieces of furniture they sit on, but who appreciate the “spirit of the place”. In January 2020, by choosing to employ Virgil Abloh, the Kreo gallery gained 5 million followers on Instagram. Virgil Abloh, architect by training, artistic director for men’s collections at Louis Vuitton, took over the gallery with the exhibition “Efflorescence” until March, date of 1 er confinement. By a skilful work of the material, the concrete, tagged and graffiti, an openwork mirror in the street wear, it gained its legitimacy in the design.
Bénédicte Duhalde
Efflorescence Collection, Virgil Abloh, Galerie Kreo: “The name of this collection seems paradoxical for what initially appears to be solid pieces of reality for sitting, gathering and looking at. Beyond the certain fact that it is always fruitful to rub shoulders with paradoxes, this botanical term reflects the mode of production of the pieces offered. Like these wild flowers that fit into the interstices and nooks and crannies of urban space, the holes, formal hazards and graffiti that cover and personalize – each time differently – the concrete surface provide texture visual and emotional that recharges our immediate environment – a landscape where the rigidity of structures and planning aims meet the randomness of organic growth and human appropriation. “
