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A fabulous Bivouac, staged across 1,000 square metres in Galerie 3 of the Centre Pompidou-Metz, this exhibition of works by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec sets out the result of almost fifteen years of mutual collaboration. Their first major solo show in France, Bivouac highlights an exceptional international career, during which the two brothers have worked with some of the greatest names in design, been crowned by numerous awards and the presence of their work in public collections.
Imagined as a temporary encampment - hence its name - Bivouac is deliberately divested of scenographic elements other than the Bouroullecs' work. Movement is imparted by contrasting scales, transparency and superpositions. Visitors are invited to wander around the gallery, moving between prototypes and finished objects, mass-produced and hand-crafted works. Bivouac highlights the immense diversity of these creations and economies achieved in production. It also addresses key concepts in the Bouroullecs' research: objects which are nomadic, ephemeral, modular, organic, flexible.
The exhibition is neither an inventory nor a retrospective of their work. Rather, it illustrates the current state of their designs and research, in constant evolution.
This first solo show at the Centre Pompidou-Metz gives pride of place to design as a fundamental and prolific discipline in contemporary creation, and an open field for research at the junction of experimentation and daily life. In keeping with the Centre Pompidou, it emphasises a determination to embrace "art in all its forms" so that visitors might discover a wide spectrum of creation.
