Pierre Yovanovitch x Claire Tabouret

French designer and interior architect Pierre Yovanovitch opens his first standalone furniture gallery on the Passage St. Avoye in the Marais in Paris. The 250m2 gallery space will feature a suite of rooms presenting the brand’s work including iconic pieces such as the Stella Table and the Oops chair, alongside a selection of contemporary artworks by artists including Tadashi Kawamata, Francesco Clemente and Imi Knoebel. This mix of furniture design and contemporary art is a signature style of Yovanovitch, who has long talked about his passion for contemporary art, often having it be an essential element in his interior projects.

To coincide with the opening of the gallery, Yovanovitch unveils a new collaboration with artist Claire Tabouret – a special, limited edition series of the Asymmetry Chair featuring her original illustrations. A long-time friend, Tabouret has worked with Yovanovitch on several earlier projects, including a mural in Château Fabrègues, his Provençal home. For the Asymmetry Chair, she has created a series of collaged textiles that create a kite motif that reflect themes of childhood, movement and fragility that swirl around the chair in a beautiful way.

“In many ways, it’s particularly fitting to commemorate the opening of our new Paris furniture gallery with a commemoration of one of my original furniture designs,” states Pierre Yovanovitch. “When the idea of creating a special Asymmetry Anniversary collection came to mind, I intuitively thought of Claire Tabouret. Having known Claire for a decade, the collection is in many ways a reflection of our friendship and creative synergy. The richness of her work and the common theme of childhood bring transience, poetry, color and movement to this otherwise geometric, almost rock-like form.”

The colour of the upholstery, soft butter yellow or powder blue, to a deeper jewel-like reddish-brown, are a perfect support for her original drawings and were custom selected by the artist and produced by Manufacture Royale Bonvallet, who worked with Yovanovitch on the first edition of the chair in 2013. When Yovanovitch first produced the chair, he also worked with French craft specialists Atelier Jouffre and L’Atelier Caraco, who also helped produce this special edition.

As Tabouret states, “As with Pierre’s general approach to design, there is this juxtaposition of simplicity and ease with the reality of meticulous detail and exceptional level of savoir-faire involved in creating the work. I wanted this collection to be a reflection of this dichotomy. The childlike quality of the kite – a theme which is a common thread throughout all of my work – coupled with the immense handiwork of the artisans involved in making the pieces come to life. Having known one another for 10 years now, this theme of childhood is something which overlaps in both of our creative practices. Pierre’s general curiosity and openness to the beauty in life coupled with his rigor, and my focus on youth coupled with the complexity of its many characters, is represented in this collection.”

Visitors will be able to experience the Asymmetry Anniversary collection from October 12th to 26th, timed to Paris+ par Art Basel.

Pierre Yovanovitch

@pierre.yovanovitch

@pierre.yovanovitch.mobilier

Claire Tabouret