The Design Parade 2023, shared by the neighbouring towns of Hyères and Toulon, is gathering momentum in kickstarting summer in the South of France (until 3 September in Hyères and until 5 November in Toulon). Exhibitions of the decorative arts in contemporary design are spread lavishly across both Provencal towns, and this year also marks the centenary of Robert Mallet-Stevens’ Modernist masterpiece, Villa Noailles, built on a hilltop in Hyères for art patrons, Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles and the hub of the festival since its inception.
This 17th edition of the International Festival of Design in Hyères was presided by Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance, while the 7th edition of Interior Architecture in Toulon was presided by architect, interior designer and founder of Culture in Architecture, Aline Asmar d’Amman, with both guests of honour presenting an exhibition of their work.
Highlights from Design Parade 2023
Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance
In 2019, Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance founded Made in Situ in Lisbon where he now lives. Manifesto of a Journey at the Villa Noailles presents its five current collections that draw on local natural materials and site-specific craftsmanship; Barro Negro black ceramic, Azulejos, Burnt Cork, Bronze and Beeswax candleholders.
Duchaufour-Lawrance's Oak and Cork, bringing together the sinuous wood and its distinctive cork bark recuperated from the 2021 fire in the Massif des Maures, is unveiled for the first time in the disused swimming pool of Villa Noailles.
Aline Asmar d’Amman
Asmar d’Amman’s Love, Women and the Sea in Toulon’s Ancien Évêché is an homage to the free spiritedness of the Noailles and the distinct charm of Mediterranean interiors. Her scenography and furniture were designed exclusively for the space with Chanel's Fashion Metiers d’Art 19M, and artisans of Ateliers de France who created folding screens, columns and decorative panels in pleated staff with Haute Couture motifs.
Pierre Yovanovich
Internationally renowned for breathing new life into historic spaces – not least Chateau Fabregues, his own Provencal home – Pierre Yovanovich commemorated the anniversary with Summer Nights, an elegantly whimsical narration of the homeowners’ lives for their private apartments.
He designed furniture for the guest room, incorporated vintage design elements from the archives, and commissioned contemporary artworks for the entrance, reading room, dining room, Marie-Laure’s boudoir and Charles’ salon, bedroom and dressing room.
Ronan Bouroullec
Ceramique lamps for Flos, shown as part of Ronan Bouroullec's Recent Productions
Ronan Bouroullec is exhibiting part two of his triptych, Hands to Clay, in the Galerie du Canon, Hyères. Designed specifically for the space, the scenography is composed of bricks, highlighting his total immersion into the world of ceramics. The medium asserts itself naturally, at the intersection between drawing, painting and sculpture of landscapes, silhouettes and people. Meanwhile Part three, Recent Productions, is on show at Villa Noailles until 23 September.
Design Parade Hyères and Toulon prize winners 2023
French-Tunisian Yassine Ben Abdallah, a graduate of both Science Po in France and the Design Academy of Eindhoven, is this year’s Design Parade Hyères prize winner for his project, Mémoires de Plantation. Growing up in Reunion Island, an isolated French colony in the Indian Ocean where sugarcane accounts for 60% of the national production, he observed the absence of any archival objects belonging to the sugar plantations’ slaves and indentured labourers in the local museum.
Ben Abdallah created three machetes in coloured sugar that gradually dissolve in humidity until they have completely evaporated, a study in creating a more desirable future through designed objects. His project also won the Grand Prix du Public.
Occitan local Clément Rosenberg was the winner of the Interior Architecture prize with his Bedroom Upholstered for a Cicada in Winter. An École Duperré textile design graduate, Rosenberg designed a heraldic shield for the Mediterranean coastline that runs from Nice to Perpignan, in red for the Occitan cross, azure for the sea and sky, pale gold for the sun and calanques, with the cicada as central symbol. He extended his vision with a winter bedroom. As the cicada spends most of its life as larva underground, the medieval-inspired bedroom is a metaphor for rest and regeneration. He selected locally produced linen for its ability to conserve heat, regulate humidity and isolate from draughts, hand dying it using local plants. The cicada features in earthenware, ceramics and woven in textile.
This year, Tectona introduced a prize for the creation of a stackable dining chair in natural materials on the theme 'A Break Beneath the Sun.' Joint winners are Lucien Dumas and Lou-Poko Savadogo for their chair in metal and sisal.
Villa Noailles, 47 Montée de Noailles, Hyères, until 3 September 2023
Ancien Échêché, 69 cours Lafayette, Toulon, until 5 November 2023
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The Park: step inside Jeremy King's mid-century dinerOne of several 2024 openings from restauranteur, Jeremy King, food critic Ben McCormack books in at The Park
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Politics, oil crises and abortion rights infiltrate the optimistic 1970s interiors of Villa BenkemounFor the 50th anniversary of Villa Benkemoun in Arles, a new exhibition critically explores the year of 1974 through contemporary and historic artworks that antagonise the optimism of its design
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Ora ïto expresses his design language in an artistic alphabet he calls GrammatologyAbstraction and functionalism inform two exhibitions from the maverick multidisciplinary French designer Ora ïto at St-Paul de Vence and Marseille
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Design Parade is the South of France's annual design extravaganzaIf you're heading to the South of France this summer, don't miss Design Parade Hyeres & Toulon 2024, the annual creative extravaganza spotlighting emerging talent in historical locations
