From Idea to Form

The exhibition From Idea to Form will highlight the major donations which the museum received recently by French artisan-manufacturers Domeau & Pérès and designer Peter Ghyczy. It will take a behind the scenes look at the productive relationship between craftsmen, industry and designers. 

Reconnecting with the museum’s origins
The Werkbund’s cry for art, craft, and industry to join forces, in order to foster excellence and innovation in the field of applied arts, was at the core of the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum’s exhibition and collection-building strategy at its inception in the early 1900s, and continues to resonate deeply today. For the first time in a century, Kunstmuseen Krefeld are relaunching an active exhibition and collection-building strategy in the field of the applied arts and design.

The first fruits of this renewed commitment for design in its relation to craft and industry will be at the core of the exhibition From Idea to Form. The concurrent show on display at the KWM on Peter Behrens offers the historical point of departure for this exhibition. From Idea to Form retraces the development process behind furniture design by highlighting the fruitful dialogue between designers and Domeau & Pérès. Illustrated by a selection of objects, spanning from sketches and prototypes to the final product, the production process will be made visible to visitors. “In an already saturated design landscape, Domeau & Pérès succeeded to forge their own path. They enabled designers, often early on in their careers, to produce experimental and ambitious projects, which, from our present vantage point, were groundbreaking,” so Katia Baudin, the director of Kunstmuseen Krefeld and curator of the exhibition.

The exhibition sheds light on the productive exchange between these outstanding craftsmen—Bruno Domeau is a trained saddler, Philippe Pérès is an upholsterer and a laureate of the prestigious Compagnon du devoir crafts guild training program—and renowned designers, such as Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, matali crasset, Eric Chevallier, Odile Decq, Jérôme Gauthier, Eric Jourdan, François Mangeol, Christophe Pillet, Elodie Descoubes and Laurent Nicolas, Martin Szekely, as well as Michael Young. Reeditions of furniture by Sophie Taeuber-Arp are also included in the show. The exhibition will include dialogues with certain works from the collection, in order to further embed this ensemble in its new home. A part of the exhibition will be devoted to Ghyczy’s work for the polyurethane company Elastrogran (1968–1972). It includes the Garden Egg Chair—a design icon—which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. According to Katia Baudin: “This important gift highlights a particularly fascinating collaboration between a designer and an industrialist who worked together to develop new, experimental applications for polyurethane in everyday life.”

Domeau & Pérès
In 1996, the upholsterer Philippe Pérès (b. 1970 in Cannes) and the saddler Bruno Domeau (b. 1962 in Suresnes) founded the company Domeau & Pérès to dedicate their artisanal know-how and expertise to contemporary design. Rather than trodding down the usual path and focussing on historical period furniture (such as the Bergère Louis XV), they decided to bring the compagnon tradition into the 21st century, to the intersection where tradition and innovation meet. The two craftsmen are internationally known for their high-quality and detail-oriented use of materials and for their creative dialog with major protagonists of the design world. Through their exclusive editions, often limited or made-to-order, characterized by intricate and complex production processes, Domeau & Pérès have written design history.  On the occasion of the company’s 20 year anniversary, Domeau & Pérès bestowed Kunstmuseen Krefeld and Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris, a selection of furniture and objects. Some of these pieces have become contemporary design icons, such as matali crassets “Quand jim monte à paris” (when Jim comes to Paris, 1997).

Exhibition curated by Katia Baudin, Director Kunstmuseen Krefeld.

Press materials can be found here.