TEL AVIV.- Designers Ronan (b. 1971) and Erwan (b. 1976) Bouroullec have been working together for over 20 years now. The French duo of designers derives its approach from observing different situation of daily life, both indoors and out in the open – work environments, urban areas and nature – which they reinterpret into new spatial states and conceptions. Their childhood landscapes remain an enduring inspiration for them, with views such as the pastures of Bretagne by the Atlantic Ocean or moss tangled up in the barks of trees ingrained in their imaginative psyche as organic formations of interweaved growth, shapes that they translate into a lightweight architecture of modular and transportable pieces in a malleable typology.
Many of the furniture pieces realized by the Bouroullec brothers also double as space definers, which unlike fixed walls can be altered and moved around. The scope of their work arguably reflects the evolution in the typology of living spaces in recent decades: the change in spatial hierarchies and designations as private studies tend to gradually disappear and circulation in spaces assumes a more complex dimension, which provokes, in turn, a growing need for intimate areas within shared spaces.
17 Screens resulted from a year-long research into the possible affinities among different disciplines of arts, crafts, materials, novel techniques and methods of traditional craftsmanship. Unlike their previous projects, where the Bouroullec brothers responded to commissions from manufacturers, the museum installation shown here has evolved independently from the demands of a predetermined product.
The work process involved working from drawings which, with the help of various craftsmen, specialized textile labs and textile makers, were translated into woven suspended grids that are positioned along free-form compositions of threaded ceramic cylinders and glass tubes in varying widths, part of which recall lab test tubes. Along these are hanging compositions made of anodized aluminum elements and a mesh of interwoven twigs, with the whole held together by elastic bands and plastic joints devised especially for the project.
The resulting sensorial view of overlapping tactile elements, seen here for the first time, activates the space in a web of uniquely-made prototypes that manage to convey a human touch.
The Brothers Bouroullec have worked for leading design companies, among them Vitra, Magis, Established and Sons, Ligne Roset, Alessi, Cappelini, Matiazzi, Flos, Kvadrat, and Glas Italia. In recent years, their work was featured in two comprehensive exhibitions, at the Pompidou Center in Metz in 2011, and at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2013.
