Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Textile Field

With the Textile Field installation for Danish company Kvadrat, the brothers Bouroullec transform the V&A Museum into an extension of Hyde Park.

We are in London, the capital of the great urban parks with their great expanses of green (the famous lawns) on which citizens, as soon as the weather permits, lie down and take off their shoes to perpetrate the typically British habit that somewhat embarrasses us Italians—especially if it is not practiced in the park but in the office or restaurant. When you enter the Raphael Court at the Victoria & Albert Museum delicately invaded by the Bouroullec brothers' latest creation, you feel like you're in Hyde Park. With shoes removed, museum visitors walk softly and recline languidly on soft textile surfaces contemplating the Raphael cartoons on the walls as if they were natural landscapes (the cartoons depicting the deeds of Saints Peter and Paul are scale models of the tapestries originally designed for the walls of the Sistine Chapel).

Exactly what the two designers hoped would happen. In fact Ronan Bouroullec shamelessly confides that he does not love museums, and that he reacted with an initial sense of discomfort to the proposal by Anders Byriel, CEO of Kvadrat, to study an installation at the V & A during the last London Design Festival (for which it was also necessary to obtain permission from the Queen, since the museum is owned by the Court).

The Bouroullec brothers have installed <i>Textile Field</i> in the hall devoted to the Cartoons of Raphael, depicting the deeds of Saints Peter and Paul, scale models of the tapestries originally designed for the Sistine Chapel. — The Bouroullec brothers have installed *Textile Field* in the hall devoted to the Cartoons of Raphael, depicting the deeds of Saints Peter and Paul, scale models of the tapestries originally designed for the Sistine Chapel.

"We visited the V & A galleries and I thought about why I don't like museums; they are totally disconnected from life; dead places, far from the practice of design. I like things when they relate to sensuality, to life. So we thought that an interesting project for this place would be to explore how people interact with the works of art on display. In reality, all too often museums turn into a sort of punishment. The challenge was to invent or define something that could put people in a different situation, that is, to think about it as though it were an interiors project: if it's successful from an ergonomic point of view, if it's comfortable and if it makes users feel at ease, even psychologically. We began to imagine a swimming pool in this great hall and then a sandy beach where you can lie down and admire a landscape."

Details of the modular platform, composed of numerous elements of textile-padded foam rubber, mounted on a wood frame with a Velcro system.

And that is how the Textile Field installation was born. It is a modular platform composed of numerous foam rubber textile elements mounted on a wood frame using a Velcro system. In terms of the object itself, it is nothing new, as Ronan himself admits; after Verner Panton, what more can be invented?

The object conceived by the Bouroullec brothers is typically imbued with the grace, lightness, and simplicity without devolving into cheapness (not an easy design task). It was designed to be assembled and disassembled by five people in five hours so it is well resolved technically. On the chromatic scale, which relates to the tones and palette of Raphael's works exhibited in the hall, the project is highly refined. But above all it is the scale of the object, which almost completely covers the entire floor surface, that was able to subvert the atmosphere and change visitors' attitudes and perceptions.

The challenge was to invent or define something that could put people in a different situation...We began to imagine a swimming pool in this great hall and then a sandy beach where you can lie down and admire a landscape.

The Bouroullecs see this installation as an important opportunity for experimentation, because the center of their research is the relationship that can be established between an object or a place and the people who use it.

Textile Field is a site-specific project made by two designers who are very committed to industrial design and who have collaborated for years with Kvadrat on new kinds of modular textile elements (North Tiles, Clouds); so one wonders about the future of this installation. Although it is still far from becoming a product, the Bouroullec brothers see it as an important experiment in their design experience because, as always, the focus of their research is on the relationship that can be instilled between an object, a place and the people who use it. Even in a unique situation like this, in which we are accustomed to seeing designers play the role of artist (even taking into account that for many the boundaries between these two "crafts" are very blurry), they do not seem to want to transcend design to encroach upon the realm of artistic expression. Or, we could say that their art and what it seeks to express can never disregard the physical interaction between the work and its user.

The work on the chromatic scale, in relation to the tones of Raphael's works exhibited in the hall, is very refined.

But their project for the V & A, according to client Anders Byriel, is another episode in the long history of Kvadrat's collaboration with contemporary artists and designers. "The interesting thing in doing projects like this," says Byriel, "is that you don't know where they might end up: they are works that have a life of their own. We could imagine that this Textile Field might be relocated elsewhere, even in a forest...like what came about with some works of contemporary art that have taken unexpected directions such as Reddress (a red fabric dress 4 meters high and with a diameter of 20 meters) by Aamu Song, created by the Korean designer and artist for a musical performance at the Louisiana Museum in 2005 and now revived in London at the Finnish Institute after having toured the world for 6 six years. No one could have foreseen this."

The Bouroullecs thought that an interesting way to create a project for this place was to explore how people interact with the works of art on display. The challenge was to think about it as though it were an interiors project: if it’s comfortable and if it makes users feel at ease, even psychologically.

So we can imagine seeing Textile Field by the Bouroullec brothers reassembled someplace else; perhaps, coming full circle, right in the Sistine Chapel. It wouldn't be bad to admire the Last Judgement from a comfortable seat.
Silvia Monaco

<i>Textile Field</i> was on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum during the London Design Festival 2011. — *Textile Field* was on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum during the London Design Festival 2011.

Two views of the assembly of the structure. The object designed by the Bouroullecs is designed to be assembled and disassembled by five people in five hours.

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Textile Field

With the Textile Field installation for Danish company Kvadrat, the brothers Bouroullec transform the V&A Museum into an extension of Hyde Park.

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