Matali Crasset proposes a project between sculpture and installation on a more intimate, less monumental scale that offers a highly experimental and surprising way to play. The link between the different play spaces does not follow a particular theme, rather an optical effect combined with the use of conical forms. These rhythms create a subtle balance between forms that are closed enough to create a sense of interiority and open enough to see what is happening in the rest of the playground.
PROJECT PRESENTATION
" When people ask me what my dream projects are, I often say that my only dreams are what clients envision and commission me to do. And yet, after having frequented playgrounds in Paris and across France, I cannot help but dream of something better for the children of the future. One part of my brain dreams of the Golem, Niki de Saint Phalle’s monumental slide and sculpture, a three-headed monster whose three tongues are slides for the Rabivonich Garden in West Jerusalem, which was commissioned by Mayor Teddy Kollek. Decried at first, it has since become one of the city’s major attractions, and the garden is now named for her. I can also recall my children’s elation when we visited the Hakone Open Air Museum in Japan with its sculptures that children can climb and play on. My projects work at a smaller, less monumental scale that offers a highly experimental, surprising way to play. The link between the different play spaces does not follow a particular theme, rather an optical effect combined with the use of conical forms. These rhythms create a subtle balance between forms that are closed enough to create a sense of interiority and open enough to see what is happening in the rest of the playground. "
" When people ask me what my dream projects are, I often say that my only dreams are what clients envision and commission me to do. And yet, after having frequented playgrounds in Paris and across France, I cannot help but dream of something better for the children of the future. One part of my brain dreams of the Golem, Niki de Saint Phalle’s monumental slide and sculpture, a three-headed monster whose three tongues are slides for the Rabivonich Garden in West Jerusalem, which was commissioned by Mayor Teddy Kollek. Decried at first, it has since become one of the city’s major attractions, and the garden is now named for her. I can also recall my children’s elation when we visited the Hakone Open Air Museum in Japan with its sculptures that children can climb and play on. My projects work at a smaller, less monumental scale that offers a highly experimental, surprising way to play. The link between the different play spaces does not follow a particular theme, rather an optical effect combined with the use of conical forms. These rhythms create a subtle balance between forms that are closed enough to create a sense of interiority and open enough to see what is happening in the rest of the playground. "
PROJECT LEADER
Matali Crasset, designer
Matali Crasset was trained as an industrial designer. In the early 2000s, she founded her own firm, Matali Crasset Productions. She set up shop next to her house in an old printing facility that has been transformed into housing units and small gardens in the heart of Belleville, one of Paris’ most colorful working class neighborhoods.
Matali Crasset views design as a process of searching. Her unique perspective allows her to view daily life in a particular way and to envision scenarios for the future. Her methodology consists of observing people’s daily habits and questioning customary organizing principles. Like her emblematic object, the hospitality column “When Jim comes up to Paris,” she invents new rituals on the basis of her perceptive observations about our usages. Her view of the world is sophisticated and yet it remains always new. This allows her to question the evidence of our codes to rewrite them more swiftly. Her work consists of looking for new typologies and formulating logics for new lives. She defines this search as a gentle accompaniment towards the contemporary.
Matali Crasset, designer
Matali Crasset was trained as an industrial designer. In the early 2000s, she founded her own firm, Matali Crasset Productions. She set up shop next to her house in an old printing facility that has been transformed into housing units and small gardens in the heart of Belleville, one of Paris’ most colorful working class neighborhoods.
Matali Crasset views design as a process of searching. Her unique perspective allows her to view daily life in a particular way and to envision scenarios for the future. Her methodology consists of observing people’s daily habits and questioning customary organizing principles. Like her emblematic object, the hospitality column “When Jim comes up to Paris,” she invents new rituals on the basis of her perceptive observations about our usages. Her view of the world is sophisticated and yet it remains always new. This allows her to question the evidence of our codes to rewrite them more swiftly. Her work consists of looking for new typologies and formulating logics for new lives. She defines this search as a gentle accompaniment towards the contemporary.
