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ECAL’s More Rules for Modern Life: Objects or Objets d’Art?

Displaying pieces by students from industrial design and fine arts programmes, ECAL’s More Rules for Modern Life exhibition plays with the flimsy distinctions between objets d’art and practical objects.

  • Kiki by Hanna Rochereau. Photography by ECAL/Younès Klouche

  • Left: Megalito I by Margaux Dewarrat, Sous-Sol au 1 and Vue d’installation by Line Chevalley, Manta by Nathan Baraness and Dapple by Dylan Casasnovas. Right: Zig-zag by Nathan Gramage, Kiki by Hanna Rochereau, Sans titre by Elise Corpataux, Euka by Kelly Tissot, Washi by Yohanna Rieckhoff. Photography by ECAL/Younès Klouche

  • Keramos wall clock by Myriam Meyer (left) and Meta wall lights and one-way mirror by Dimitri Nassisi (right). Photography by ECAL/Younès Klouche

  • Left: Camo by Julien Chaintreau & François Ménès, Megalito II by Margaux Dewarrat, Tracchia by Giovanna Belossi and Badbadak by Hanieh Rashid. Right: Sans titre by Emeline Herrera, Fossile by Cécile Polito, Washi by Yohanna Rieckhoff, Clastic by Iskander Guetta, Worb by Manon Membrez and Tapisse by Marie Cornil. Photography by ECAL/Younès Klouche

  • Camo nested boxes by Julien Chaintreau & François Ménès. Photography by ECAL/Younès Klouche

  • Sans titre menhir by Emeline Herrera. Photography by ECAL/Younès Klouche

  • Hook coat rack by Manfred-Gordon Baud & Ferdinand Pezin (left) and Corbi peg set by Jasmina Celikovic (right). Photography by ECAL/Younès Klouche

  • Fondo wall-mounted shelf by Amélie Demay. Photography by ECAL/Younès Klouche



BY

April 10th, 2017


Swiss artschool ECAL (École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne) keeps popping up in our Milan radar these past few years. Last year it made it to our list of most intriguing exhibitions in Milan with When objects Dream exhibition, which considered the future of objects by imagining what they would dream of.

This year the school has returned with a slew of exhibitions around the city, and one of them plays with the flimsy distinction between objets d’art and practical objects.

Displayed in Spazio Orso 16 until this Sunday, More Rules for Modern Life showcases side-by-side pieces by bachelor students from industrial design and fine arts programmes. The exhibition is curated by Switzerland’s curator and jack-of-all-arts John M Armleder. After they revisited some of Armleder’s works (including his famous Furniture Sculpture) the students developed the pieces for a full semester under the watchful eye of designer and professor Christophe Guberan and Stéphane Kropf, artist and Head of ECAL’s Bachelor Fine Arts programme.

The exhibits include a rocking zebra, a handless clock, a minimal painting with maximalist details, concrete marble and a menhir made from recycled plastic – all piled up in, as ECAL describes it, “a visual cacophony that is happily deliberate”.

To quote the delightful little essay It’s Only Furniture by Parker Williams that accompany the exhibition: “Somehow, whatever you do, whatever you show, it is something you might stumble on. Sometimes, you get cultural and then again it’s furniture”.

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