A Parisian Teaches New Yorkers What a Living Room Should Look Like
Precious personal space. Anyone living in New York can describe the sense of normalcy and comfort found in the refuge of their apartment (however large or tiny). It’s an idea Paris-based Galerie BSL contends with for their first time exhibiting in the so-called “City That Never Sleeps.” The gallery—founded in 2010 in the lively Marais district in Paris—will evoke domestic life not only through the available objects, but also in the very design of their booth for the Collective 2 Design Fair. The setting: a living room.
With a chosen theme “Living in New York City with Design Art,” Galerie BSL will offer design denizens specially commissioned and limited-edition household objects and furniture presented atop a large, custom-made grey carpet. An ovoid orange rug will delineate the seating area of this “living space.” (The entire concept comes by way of interior designer and architect Emilie Bonaventure of the Parisian agency, be-attitude.) Here you’ll find the SeeJo So II, one-off sofa (2013) by Israeli designer Ayala Serfaty, a white porcelain bench from Djim Berger, who hails from the Netherlands, and a cluster of five tables with tubular brass legs by Algerian Taher Chemirik, whose studio is also in Paris. In addition, Galerie BSL will introduce the latest from Spanish-born, Netherlands-based Nacho Carbonell’s series “Time is a Treasure,” and premiere the first collection by French engineering and design firm Studio Cogitech, along with works from Adrien De Melo and Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance.
“For our first participation [at Collective 2], we imagined a booth that reflects the very urban and contemporary side of New York, as well as its historical past, with an industrial twist,” says director Béatrice Saint Laurent, who traded her former life as an executive with the French Ministry of Culture to establish the gallery. This dialogue between materials—honeycomb, aluminum, and fiberglass, juxtaposed with traditional materials such as copper, stone, and bronze—reflects the gallery’s larger ambition to bridge sculpture and function, tradition and innovation, design and art. “I would say that there is more and more of a dialogue between art, design, and architecture, nurturing a new approach to the object,” adds Saint Laurent.
Galerie BSL, Collective 2 Design Fair, New York, Booth A2, May 8–11, 2014.
