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The factory of ideas

At the Lieu du Design, a recent exhibition marking 30 years of French design school ENSCI — Les ateliers, as it is affectionately known — is a wide-ranging review of the work of more than 800 graduates over three decades of activity.

Motivated by more than simply presenteeism, the new French minister of culture and the minister for industrial production were both present at the opening of the "La Fabrique des Idées" ["The factory of ideas"], a recent exhibition marking 30 years of ENSCI. It was almost an act of pilgrimage, sealing the continuity between the French Republic's new socialist direction and this unique design school, which even today is a jewel in the crown of transalpine design and which, when it opened in 1982, was one of the most valuable creations of Jack Lang's design revolution.

Minister of culture and communication Aurelie Filippetti underlined that "there will be no economic relaunch without a cultural relaunch" and official discourse is now speaking of the Equipe de France in design with the enthusiasm of a Mexican wave in a football stadium.

It is not just a myth, but also an established fact that the school has been the nursery (and/or laboratory) that has produced designers who now form the solid, internationally recognised core of French design work. Les ateliers — as the school is affectionately known — has been the training ground for stars like Matali Crasset and emerging talents such as Benjamin Graindorge, via Tsè-Tsè, the Bouroullec brothers and younger designers like Eloi Chafaï of Normal Studio.

ENSCI is a school that prepares, and has prepared, outstanding professionals — and not just imitators of Starck. The exhibition curator and design historian Claire Fayolle has sought to demonstrate this with a selection that puts the emphasis decisively on the quality of the designs: the exhibition is a wide-ranging review of the work of more than 800 graduates over three decades of activity.

Top and above: <em>30 Years of ENSCI</em> installation view at Le Lieu du Design, Paris — Top and above: *30 Years of ENSCI* installation view at Le Lieu du Design, Paris

What you immediately realise from the Spartan approach to the display is that some of the projects and prototypes on show go hand in hand with recent changes in everyday Parisian habits and ways of life. They are not urban furniture designs, but rather reflect a micro-revolution in public transport. The introduction of the Vélib' (and more recently the Autolib'), for example, encapsulates the idea of shared forms of transport, now an integral part of life in the French metropolis, but one which has a precedent in Antoine Fritsch and Louis Le Bihan's Pix Band (1989) or in Luc Benedetti's Oxo bicycle (1993).

Luc Benedetti, <em>OXO, location of shared bike</em>, 1993 — Luc Benedetti, *OXO, location of shared bike*, 1993

Several decades before the practice became widespread, ENSCI was thinking in concrete terms about responsible and strongly collective design — and it is by putting this working method and its professional ethical commitment first that the school in Rue Saint Sabin seems to have constructed its almost legendary reputation. From Jêrome Aich's sanitary material disposal systems for non-governmental organisations to Claire Lemarchand's visualised urban panoramas (Quand les Grillons…), which express a symbiotic relationship with the world of invertebrates, it is easy to appreciate that the results are not simply the result of outstanding teaching.

ENSCI, the exhibition seems to suggest, does not just distil technologically advanced research. It is rather in the perfect mix, the result of observing everyday rituals and poetry, that the secret and the success of a good design product are to be sought. The field is industrial design, but the intellectual apparatus at work in different areas of specialisation is similar to the Deleuzian school of philosophy and, in general, rhizomatic learning.

What you immediately realise from the Spartan approach to the display is that some of the projects and prototypes on show go hand in hand with recent changes in everyday Parisian habits and ways of life

<em>30 Years of ENSCI</em> installation view at Le Lieu du Design, Paris — *30 Years of ENSCI* installation view at Le Lieu du Design, Paris

Designs that foreshadowed the smartphone and methods of producing instantaneous objects, such as those of Laurent Lebot in 1997, are but one measure of excellence. Sometimes, unfortunately, even the best results have been snubbed by the collective Colbertism of French industry.

However, ENSCI has a particular strength in international exchange and has been at the forefront of networking for decades. A good demonstration of this is given by Samuel Lacroix's animation, which maps the spread of graduates across design agencies and studios in Europe and around the world. This is the product of a collective effort coordinated by the research directors in the individual departments, but also of the intuition of professionals who have spent decades working behind the scenes. One such is Licia Bottura, who is in charge of international exchange.

Over the years, the contacts and the experiences of designers and students in specialised internships have multiplied, as have talks and activity focused on studios and established global players. The new director, Bernard Kahane, who replaces Alain Cadix, is now putting the focus on partnerships and relationships with the outside world.

As if in a portrait, the school seems summarised in the beautiful textures of the feathers interwoven by Janaina Milheiro, which conclude the exhibition. With its highly innovative weave, it is a priceless creation, reinventing what design can offer as a hugely valuable currency, one balanced between ancestral ways of doing things and the society of the future, which will no longer have to make do without it. Ivo Bonacorsi

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The factory of ideas

At the Lieu du Design, a recent exhibition marking 30 years of French design school ENSCI — Les ateliers, as it is affectionately known — is a wide-ranging review of the work of more than 800 graduates over three decades of activity.

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