Defying categorisation and straddling the worlds of art, architecture and consumer culture, the Bouroullec brothers open their first mid-career survey at MCA Chicago this autumn.
The world of design is one of constant rebirth and renewal. Each year fashion insiders descend on the freshest new clothes swaddled in their winter coats, and fan sites devoted to murmurs and whispers speculate over rumoured new products from Apple. Every spring comes with innumerable lifestyle magazines providing home makeovers for their readers鈥 spring cleans and the glossies release increasingly weighty tomes for their September issues, accompanied by the pre-requisite 鈥渂ack to school鈥 ambience. This constant need for the new, the perpetual thirst for the extraordinary, has created a consumer culture that has come to rely on a certain ineffectiveness of its own products: the DVD player with its in-built obsolescence and the diet industry with its avoidance of revealing the cold, hard facts of permanent weight loss. But accompanying these unsavoury side effects is an engagement with the changing realities of everyday life, and a striving for innovations to make living more comfortable, economical, environmentally friendly and, most importantly, adaptable.
For over 15 years, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have been at the centre of this zeitgeist. Rather than assuming an unmistakable 鈥渓ook鈥 or identity, their designs have as their raison d鈥櫭猼re a real malleability at the hands of the consumer. Flexibility is their number one draw and their work enables collaboration between designer and end user. The final form of pieces will vary just as their final destinations vary, as their users adapt them to their everyday needs.
Adaptability of living space is integral to the brothers鈥 practice and Erwan, the younger of the two, first gained acclaim for the Lit Clos, a stark, white, tree-house-style structure designed as an area of sleep and privacy within an open-plan living space. The 1998 creation Modular Kitchen followed, and furthered the user鈥檚 interaction in a way that has become mass-produced with each of Ikea鈥檚 homeware ranges, with hooks, shelves and worktops to be built and redistributed to meet the user鈥檚 current needs. Joyn Office System was the brothers鈥 first official collaboration and allowed workers to partition their stations to suit their everyday needs, providing privacy from colleagues鈥 prying eyes.
Bivouac is a major exhibition of this spectacular (and ongoing) 15-year partnership at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and, in collaboration with the Pompidou Centre, is a sign of the growing influence of Ronan and Erwan鈥檚 designs. Chief curator Michael Darling acknowledges that now is the right time for this exhibition because of the continuing momentum of the Bouroullecs鈥 career: 鈥淭hey have built up such a substantial body of work that it is hard to ignore them any more. Plus, it has been eight years since their last show in the USA and their work has grown enormously in sophistication since then.鈥 The exhibition is part of an increasing engagement by MCA Chicago with design in all its forms, although the museum has 鈥渁 history of doing architecture and graphic design shows 鈥 furniture and other types of design has not been a part of our profile yet, but seems to be a natural extension. With the Bouroullecs, the work is so contemporary, so sculptural, that it is a natural fit for our audience.鈥 With the exhibition鈥檚 title directly referencing a temporary encampment, the concept of flexible modern living and a 鈥渕ore nomadic people鈥 is central, with Darling adding that 鈥渆ven some designs are made with the idea of re-skinning them for the new context.鈥
Despite their background in industrial design, and a notable willingness to experiment with new and manmade materials, the Bouroullecs nonetheless take significant inspiration from nature. The organic, undulating forms of pieces such as the Nuages, Algues and Clouds, echo the imperfections of nature while allowing a flexibility which isn鈥檛 always true to it. Darling explains, however, that this relationship with nature extends little beyond aesthetic inspiration: 鈥淭he Algues obviously come from studying nature but, when one starts to use it, you can see that it is highly engineered and thought-out, and combines with other pieces to make a screen that isn鈥檛 the first item we think we might need.鈥 The fluctuations and general living of human life are the most integral influences on both design and aesthetics. 鈥淭heir Joyn desk system, too, is highly contemporary in look and materials, but is based on the various activities that might take place around a large family dining table. This deeply human-centred quality is what makes their work so approachable and timeless. You can immediately recognise the use or reference in almost all of their work, even if it is something that doesn鈥檛 conform to a common typology.鈥 This philosophy, prioritising human rather than purely aesthetic satisfaction, extends right down to the pieces鈥 production processes and supply chains: 鈥淭hey care a lot about how things are made and invest a lot of time with engineers at the companies they work for, scrutinising the production process so that they understand it themselves and can bring new ideas to bear on it.鈥
But while Darling emphasises that 鈥渘ature itself is perhaps not always the answer for them,鈥 he recognises this common vein through much of the work and its implicit appeal for the everyman user. Their work is successful when it inspires familiarity, becoming a part of the furniture, and 鈥渘ature is one of those very recognisable touch points that they utilise.鈥 Furthermore, nature is the system of disparate parts working in harmony made manifest: 鈥淲hen we think of nature, we also think of systems and interconnectedness, and these are modernist principles that you see the brothers working with a lot too.鈥
This idea of the adaptability of design, and the emphasis on daily life, extends throughout the show to the very curation of MCA Chicago鈥檚 space. Cultivating the white cube of the galleries naturally posed a challenge to both Darling and the Bouroullecs because so many of the brothers鈥 most successful works are created with domestic (or professional) interiors in mind. Consequently, the brothers orchestrated the layout and had 鈥渧ery strong ideas about presentation鈥. Together they and Darling 鈥渟egmented a lot of the gallery spaces so that they are more room-like, providing the sort of context where these items operate at the right scale.鈥 But Darling also argues that the grandeur of the Bouroullecs鈥 pieces could easily hold its own in larger spaces: 鈥淭he works are so graphically and sculpturally sound that they can easily stand alone 鈥 and still command attention.鈥 In many ways the nature of the works means that they created these segmented living spaces themselves. The Bouroullecs have made substantial variations on separation devices; in addition to the Nuages and Algues, the North Tiles further the possibilities for bespoke space creation with lightweight, fabric elements interlocking while still creating a completely opaque screen and the privacy and muffled sound that accompanies it. These contrast with the ethereal, lighter touch of Algues and highlight the brothers鈥 experimental use of varying materials to the same ends.
Room separation devices are complemented by the Clouds, foam and cloth petals which form three-dimensional constructions hovering intimately above the heads of their users. The effect of much of the Bouroullecs鈥 work is the realisation of a sort of safety zone; a softer area of calm, muffling and protection away from the galleries鈥 stark white walls. Retreating even further into a personal space, Alcoves envelop their sitters like a Zittel sculpture, but the difference here is how much more realistic and approachable the Bouroullecs鈥 pieces seem in contrast to the fine art sensibility of much of Zittel鈥檚 stark, often uncomfortable-looking work. Alcoves have seen the Bouroullecs鈥 influence extend to open-plan offices internationally, and many an open-plan layout will now employ similar devices to create an area where employees can withdraw from the hectic pace of the workplace, conduct semi-private meetings, and generally soak up the feeling of calmness that accompanies such a restrained space. The piece is an important example of the 鈥渕icroarchitecture鈥 that the brothers increasingly refer to which 鈥渋s important because it gives furniture a grander ambition and purpose, without taking on all of the headaches and financial commitments of architecture,鈥 while simultaneously adapting to the open-plan tendencies that building construction has assumed in the late-20th and early 21st centuries. Furthermore, the concept of microarchitecture continues to emphasise the role of the user: 鈥淚t is inherently user-driven, unfixed and modular enough for the purchaser to deploy as they best see fit.鈥
The hosting of this exhibition at MCA Chicago illustrates the unique place of product design, straddling the worlds of art, architecture and consumer culture. Product and furniture design occupy an interesting middle ground between art and architecture because they can be whimsical in a way that architecture cannot and yet must also have commercial concerns. This combination of freedom and restriction 鈥渇uels the innovation of the Bouroullecs. They are constantly trying to marry the concerns of the companies for ease of production, lowered costs, and conservation of materials, to comfortable, attractive products. By understanding the production process, they don鈥檛 have to be sceptical of it or dismissive of the number-crunchers, but can try to own it and make those concerns part of their design.鈥
Other works highlight the Bouroullecs鈥 exploratory use of materials 鈥 the abstract constellations on Losanges utilise traditional Persian crafting techniques used to create woven kilims for a modern take on these rugs which are ubiquitous in the Middle East, and have usually stuck rigidly to conservative designs. The Bouroullecs鈥 four pieces inject a contemporary note to the craft, but the geometric shapes and vibrant colours have been created at the hands of northern Pakistani carpet weavers who have filtered hundreds of years of tradition into an eye-catching, contemporary, geometric piece. Slow Chair is another example of taking a traditional material and using it in unexpected ways, all for the ultimate user experience 鈥 its knitted body offers a surprising degree of sturdiness and support while maintaining a breathability and softness to enhance the sitter鈥檚 comfort. With one single cloth pulled taut over tubular steel, the brothers engage with the modernist visions of Eames, while retreating simultaneously backwards with a very old, well-established fabric put to innovative new use. This innovation is of great interest to Darling, who comments: 鈥淭hey show a real interest in fabrics and new approaches to upholstery. I think they are doing things in that area that nobody else is doing and I look forward to other chairs that continue the successes of the Slow Chair, the Facett series and the Quilt Chair.鈥
Darling鈥檚 other highlight is the general ability of all of the pieces to work together as they would in everyday life: 鈥淚 think the interplay of colour and texture as you look down the long vaulted galleries will be spectacular 鈥 there is one room with 300 framed drawings that will completely encircle the space which will be very intense too. We will be treated not only to the beautiful Bouroullec objects, but also to their particular approach to scenography.鈥
It is rare for working partnerships to be so coherent over a long period of time but Erwan and Ronan have created a singular vision based on flexibility of space, with both admitting that Ronan contributes more to the analytical side of design while Erwan handles the artistic sensibilities. But Darling warns us not to 鈥渟hort-change the aesthetic sensibilities of Ronan as well as the clear vision and responsibility that Erwan has to the end-user of their products.鈥 The continued fruits of the relationship illustrate that Bivouac is not a retrospective because the brothers are constantly evolving with a dynamism and momentum which is essential to today鈥檚 design world. It鈥檚 important for a designer 鈥渢o avoid being just a stylist,鈥 and Darling critiques that 鈥渕any famous designers churn out products that have a certain look associated with that person, which may build brands and sell products, but doesn鈥檛 penetrate all the way down to the way the object was made or how it contributes in a new way to the use of space or the function of things. The Bouroullecs are continuously searching for ways to think differently, use technology differently, and find new applications for materials both old and new.鈥
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Bivouac opened on 20 October and ran until 20 January 2013. For further information visit .
Ruby Beesley
