Organized from September 8 to 18, the exhibition “Inventaire à la 5,5” retraced the steps of the designers’ collective’s approach. Subversive and offbeat, but always responsible and honest, they have been exploring design from all angles since 2003.
For the presentation of the furniture and objects, 5.5 chose cardboard, the essential material of the removal, not necessarily very original as a device, but effective, while playing with the codes of the industrial place, elevator, skylights, raw concrete. The signage is clear and precise, with fluorescent yellow labels recalling each fundamental stage of the work of the collective founded by Vincent Baranger, Jean-Sébastien Blanc, Anthony Lebossé and Claire Renard.
We like the obvious simplicity of the objects, but above all the evolution of this group, which is always on the move for both luxury and mass-market clients: Leroy-Merlin, Ricard, Energiser, Veuve Cliquot, La Grande Motte. Revealed by the Reanim, the medicine of the objects of the recovery, the 5,5 inaugurated the art of patching up a chair of bistro, a piece of furniture of grandmother in 2003, with humour, and intelligence… We know today how much this subject is current. Surfing on the anonymous design, in 2015, the collective imagines a variation of 70 features of the small canteen glass Duralex, some of which were edited by Designbox and Monoprix. Making the fight against waste their standard, the project “Original Copies” in 2017 is a manifesto without market value, the fight against counterfeiting to defend the original design. Space design represents an increasingly important part of the studio’s multidisciplinary activities, with in 2017, the development of the Atelier Tarkett showroom, in 2019 the “Causes Toujours” exhibition at the Maif Social Club, in 2021, the new the Centre Pompidou’s evolving bookshop in Paris that highlights their ability to bring together all forms of design.
Anne Swynghedauw
