1 Seletti’s exhibits
The Italian home accessories company enlivened the floors of Maison & Objet 2016 with a cheeky exhibit that showcased the fruits of its creative collaborations. The latest products of its ongoing partnership with image-only magazine Toiletpaper, entitled Seletti wears Toiletpaper, made for irresistible Instagram fodder; rectangular and round area rugs, emblazoned with the line’s saucy signature images, adorned one exhibit room like wallpaper. Each image was selected by the magazine’s founders, Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, and printed onto the fabric using inkjet machinery and a special heat treatment that ensures optimal vividness.
The Diesel Living with Seletti collection took over another room, where the new light frame series, Frame It, was on display. The frames hold photos and graphics, overlayed with bold text, in a backlit panel that provides a subtle dose of illumination. The images inside each Frame It frame can be replaced with the owner’s own.
2 teamLab’s lamp installation
The Tokyo-based collective blends technology with art to create immersive products and experiences. For Maison & Objet 2016, the team delivered Forest of Resonating lamps, an interactive digital installation featuring a thousand handblown Murano glass pendant lights.
The colour LEDs were equipped with motion sensors – which connected the lamps to one another, forming a network – that determined the proximity of a viewer to any one lamp. When a viewer was close by, the illumination of that lamp intensified and took on a new hue, which triggered a chain reaction across the other lights in the room. Watch a video of the installation in action here.
3 Vincent Grégoire’s inspiration rooms
House of Games was the theme of the Maison & Objet 2016 inspiration installation, a playful section of the showroom intended to “reinitiate the creative mind” of visitors. Vincent Grégoire, an interior design and architect working with trend forecasting agency NellyRodi, turned three rooms into a baroque and whimsical exploration of oddities. A giant chess board with glossy, sculptural playing pieces gave way to a gallery of peculiar portraits and specimens. Grégoire told show organizers he was inspired by a renewed public interest in board games, private social clubs and dandy style.
Complementing the inspiration rooms was the nearby Cafe-Bookstore – designed by François Bernard of the agency Croisements – where show-goers were invited to take a break in the basket chairs suspended over a red-and-white checkerboard, or by taking a turn at one of the vintage pinball machines.
