Winners of the call n°1 | Re-enchanting the Villa Medici: refurbishment of the guest rooms
→ The selection panel for the first open call for guest rooms refurbishment project selected two teams.
As part of the third chapter of the project Re-enchanting Villa Medici, the French Academy in Rome has opened a call for projects for the refurbishment of the first guest rooms at Villa Medici in the fall of 2022.
Following the meeting of the selection jury presided over by Sam Stourdzé on March 9, two winners were chosen. Camera Fantasia by Studio GGSV, Paper Factor and Matthieu Lemarié, and Studiolo by Studio Pool and Atelier Veneer will be installed in the first two guest rooms of the historic building during 2024.
This operation is carried out in collaboration with the Mobilier national, a high place of creation and preservation of heritage since Louis XIV, and with the precious support of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, patron of the arts and crafts for over 20 years.
Also supported by the Banque Populaire Foundation and the Maison Tréca, this project will bring together designers, architects, contemporary artists and art professionals to give the guest rooms a new identity.
This first call for projects will be followed by two more calls during 2023.
Studio GGSV & Paper Factor and Matthieu Lemarié : Camera Fantasia
The principle of illusion is at the heart of the room’s decor, which was entrusted to Studio GGSV, who collaborated on this occasion with Paper Factor and Matthieu Lemarié. The interior space of the room – walls and furniture – is renewed through new materials, new perspectives that play with perception. Two skills are at the heart of the project: decorative paint and paper pulp. The project refers aesthetically to the Roman heritage while assuming its reinterpretation in a contemporaneity of forms, textures and techniques.
Biography
Studio GGSV was founded in 2011 by Gaëlle Gabillet and Stéphane Villard (residents at Villa Medici, class of 2018 – 2019) around the singular Objet Trou Noir project (Carte Blanche VIA winner) which is part of the Centre Pompidou’s collections. Their association produces an atypical approach that goes from curating to research through the object, installation and interior architecture. Considering painting as a powerful means of transforming things, Studio GGSV has been collaborating since 2018 with painter-decorator Matthieu Lemarié on objects for the Mobilier national, Le 19 M, Chanel, CNAP and Villa Medici. Then they meet in Italy, Riccardo Cavaciocchi, founder of Paper Factor. The discovery of micropaper pulp for the creation of furniture or architectural facings gave rise to research on applications and patterns.
In an approach that is as much aesthetic as ecological, the combination of these two skills and design for the Villa Medici room allows the transformation of the materiality of the elements and to imagine the Camera Fantasia by playing on the illusion of materials and shapes. For their project at Villa Medici, Studio GGSV also collaborates with ANGA, founded by Valentine d’Harcourt and Alexandre Alimi. This Parisian start-up manufactures panels of very high aesthetic quality from recycled plastic. These fantastic “synthetic minerals” composed by hand will be used for furniture and for the interior decoration of the room.
Studio Pool & Atelier Veneer : Studiolo
Sébastien Kieffer and Léa Padovani(Pool) & Romain Boulais and Félix Lévêque (Atelier Veneer)
Studiolo is an invitation to a dialogue between inner life and outer world, between heritage and movement in a process of perpetual rebirth. This dynamic is translated by a game of mise en abyme: simplified and archetypal forms and counter-forms materialize through a wooden cladding, the treatment of a monochrome color and wall decorations.
Biography
Studio Pool is a Parisian creative studio founded by Léa Padovani and Sébastien Kieffer. Borrowing from the paths of design, graphic design, art direction and interior architecture, Pool stands out for its unique and total field of possibilities. They design furniture collections published by galleries and other international structures. The studio is also involved in numerous collaborations with workshops and factories. This was the case with Atelier Veneer, created by Félix Lévêque and Romain Boulais. The two teams met during several interior architecture projects and thanks to this common reflection on design, they created objects and spaces. This agreement has allowed them to develop an approach that attempts to achieve the perfect balance between form and function to meet all demands, while adapting to environmental constraints (materials minimizing waste, short circuits and natural essences favored). This long-standing collaboration has enabled Pool and Veneer to work together to propose the project dedicated to the “re-enchantment” of the Villa Medici.
The selection panel
The selection panel for this first call was composed of Alberto Cavalli, executive director of the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship and general curator of Homo Faber Event, Hedwige Gronier, head of cultural patronage at the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, Hervé Lemoine, president of the Mobilier national, Christine Macel, director of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, India Mahdavi, architect, designer and scenographer, Isabelle de Ponfilly, president of the board of directors of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, and Sam Stourdzé, director of the Académie de France in Rome – Villa Médicis.
Partner of the project Re-enchanting Villa Medici:
