Paris Design Week Factory: four galleries, four different atmospheres

There were 79 of them in 2023, and this year, there will be 127. The number of young talents who are coming to Paris Design Week Factory to gain recognition is a testament to the vitality of this emerging generation. This is why Paris Design Week has increased the overall exhibition space for this event. Factory is a set of four galleries that are made available to emerging designers. Whether they’re new grads or are new to the field, it often represents the first chance for them to come face-to-face with a professional perspective. For visitors, it’s a window into the design landscape of the future. Here, decisive encounters with professionals are what’s at stake. Espace Commines brings together designers creating collectible design (see the related article). 

Galerie Joseph on Rue Froissart will feature young design producers, designers who make their own work, and schools, such as ESAD in Reims. It’s also at Galerie Joseph that the newspaper Le Monde will be showing the 80 lamps designed by Claire Renard and Jean-Sébastien Blanc from Studio 5·5 for the daily’s 80th anniversary. Each one-of-a-kind piece will feature a historic headline from Le Monde, from 1944 until today. Finally, exhibitions from several foreign countries, such as South Korea and Saudi Arabia, will expand our view of creative design. Others will reveal the results of joint efforts: those of designer Pierre Charrié with Indonesian artisans and Galerie CushCush in Bali, and those of European designers with artisans from Eswatini, a tiny country next to South Africa. 

On Rue de Turenne, Galerie Ellia will reveal craft-oriented talents. Artisans involved in handicrafts have been working hard to invent new techniques, such as 3D fabrics for interiors from Juliette Berthonneau, or vases in mycelium from Galerie Sana Moreau, which sprout like mushrooms…The finest craftsmanship from all over the world will be here: talents from the Castilla-La Mancha region in Spain, Tunisian and Congolese designers, and a textile studio from Taipei. The leading school for fine craft devoted to ceramics, EMA CNIFOP, based in Saint-Amand-en-Puisaye, will help us discover the ceramic artists of tomorrow. Studio mo-mo, from the Provençal Drôme region, will have their sisterhood of design on display, the result of a collaboration among female artisans. And finally, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between France and China, the Celestial Empire has dispatched a delegation of artists representing the new Chinese aesthetic. The “Chinese Way of Beauty” exhibition, which crosses all categories, will take place at Galerie Joseph on 84 Rue de Turenne, a tableau of what “Chinese beauty” means today.