Category: Design

 #DesignMiami : Perrier-Jouët x Simon Heijdens

Perrier-Jouët has announced its design collaboration with London-based Dutch designer Simon Heijdens. Simon will create an immersive experience to be unveiled at Design Miami/ 4 – 8 December. Titled Phare No. 1–9 this ‘lightwork’ explores the relationship between the medium and the message with an entirely new way to express a story in a poetic, sensory work. Playing with materials, volume and movement, Phare No. 1–9 merges the conceptual and the tangible to propel the Art Nouveau aesthetic into the 21st Century.

Simon Heijdens’ key works such as Lightweeds, Tree and Shade have narrative threads that bring the natural world, and a sense of ‘coincidence’, into man-made spaces. Known for creating immersive, site-specific pieces, Heijdens’ works often use new media to add a particular notion to a space, creating an unforgettable experience. With a fine-tuned practice and clear voice, Simon Heijdens’ works are transformative yet subtle, concerned with temporality and the human experience.

To make Phare No. 1–9 Heijdens delved below the surface of the classic Art Nouveau aesthetic to find its core, which inspires this new work. Heijdens is also fascinated by the context surrounding Art Nouveau. It was an era that saw technological advancements important to the visual arts, such as the popularisation of the lithographic poster by Jules Chéret and the genesis of cinema by Louis Lumière.  The conversation between Heijdens’ own practice and Art Nouveau grew when Heijdens visited the home of Perrier-Jouët, La Maison Belle Époque in Epernay; it is here that Art Nouveau came to life as an experiential genre.

“We are thrilled to be working with Simon Heijdens this year. Simon introduces a new medium of expression, which we believe makes an important and forward-thinking contribution to the design world. The installation space becomes a screen upon which Simon tells his story. Light and liquid create the narrative; it has to be experienced.” Says Axelle de Buffevent, Style Director for Martell Mumm-Perrier-Jouët.

 Phare No. 1–9 will be unveiled in at Design Miami/, of which Perrier- Jouët is a proud partner. Since the champagne house’s first artistic collaboration in 1902 with the significant  French Art Nouveau artist Emile Gallé, who created the iconic anemone of its Belle Époque cuvée, the house has continued to commission established and emerging designers and artists. Through the partnership with Design Miami/, Perrier-Jouët helps support the best in new design talent. This marks the second year Perrier-Jouët is participating in Design Miami/ to create a curated Salon project. It follows their acclaimed 2012 project Lost Time by designers Sarah van Gameren and Tim Simpson of London-based studio Glithero. (more…)