November 2025
Matali Crasset
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“I defend design as an artistic, anthropological and social practice”
Curator: Hi! Could you give our readers a bit of background about your studio/design practice?
Matali Crasset: I was born in 1965 in Châlons-en-Champagne. After graduating at the Ateliers E.N .S.C.I in 1991, I participated in the Milan triennial, where she presented her project « The Domestic Trilogy » , three diffusors spreading warmth – murmur and intimacy – , light – images and memories – , and water – scents and swirls.
I then worked with Denis Santachiara in Milan, on architecture and design projects and on exhibitions. On my return in Paris, I started working with Philippe Starck and stayed 5 years at the Agency and at Thomson Multimedia, where she became responsible for Tim Thom, Thomson’s design center. In 1998, I set up her own structure with my partner at life and work Francis Fichot. I defend design as an artistic, anthropological and social practice. How can design contribute to our community and help us navigate the contemporary world? This is the simple yet engaged premise, from which I think and sets anything in motion.
I used to say that design was about making the world more livable. Now we can see that this no longer works in the context of the ecological crisis. There are even two current trends: a major design, which consolidates the norm and the capitalist system; and in parallel, a minor design which has always existed and which is done on a small scale. In my opinion, the practice, which is not very well understood, is based on three skills. The first is the ability to exercise one's critical sense: carrying out a design project has nothing to do with the idea of solving problems, it is, first of all, to say what is no longer acceptable from an ecological point of view. Secondly, it is the ability to project oneself from observations (a bit like anthropologists), then from analysis, to arrive at a creative act. Finally, it is giving form to things, because one knows the manufacturing processes and materials, or creating spaces. Like everyone else, the designer must reconfigure himself today. Since the confinement, I have read even more anthropologists' and philosophers' writings to understand this state of the world in detail. This allows me to cultivate my sensibility, which I bring to bear on specific projects that I share with partners who have the same values, particularly in terms of ecology.
Erika Blumenfeld, Tracing Luminaries: Plate No. I6914 (Small Magellanic Cloud), 2022, intaglio print with starlight exposed cyanotype, chine collé, and 24k gold leaf on Hahnemuhle Copperplate, 17 x 14.75 inches, published by Island Press; Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery, Houston. Photo: Richard Sprengler
Erika Blumenfeld, Tracing Luminaries: Plate No. B20645 (Small Magellanic Cloud), 2022, intaglio print with starlight exposed cyanotype, chine collé, and 24k gold leaf on Hahnemuhle Copperplate, 17 x 14.75 inches, published by Island Press; Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery, Houston. Photo: Richard Sprengler
Installation view of Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody exhibition at The Broad, Los Angeles, May 27, 2023 – October 8, 2023. Photo by Joshua White/JWPictures.com, courtesy of The Broad.
C: Could you tell us about your design for U ME U?
T: The U ME U identity and the throw both stem from an art project of ours called Symmetrika. The idea was to begin with one shape that works both as a repeatable form for patterns and as an abstract typographic unit, becoming more or less legible depending on its context and exploring the space between representation and abstraction. If the visual for the throw is an abstraction, then the U ME U identity sees Symmetrika used as reductive type.
In addition to the throw, so far we have also made Symmetrika paintings and prints, and are in the process of making an artists’ multiple (watch this space!).
What appeals to you about seeing your design in this format/medium? (throws/textiles)
First and foremost the sensual materiality of the throws — they’re both physically beautiful and (importantly) lovely to the touch. They also have a really nice weight to them, they feel substantial and this means that they fold and lay nicely. This has a wonderful and, to us at least, unexpected effect on the Symmetrika forms which I never tire of seeing: it breaks the rigidity of the structure and adds a feeling of flow.
Erika Blumenfeld, Tracing Luminaries: Plate No. I6914 (Small Magellanic Cloud), 2022, intaglio print with starlight exposed cyanotype, chine collé, and 24k gold leaf on Hahnemuhle Copperplate, 17 x 14.75 inches, published by Island Press; Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery, Houston. Photo: Richard Sprengler
Erika Blumenfeld, Tracing Luminaries: Plate No. B20645 (Small Magellanic Cloud), 2022, intaglio print with starlight exposed cyanotype, chine collé, and 24k gold leaf on Hahnemuhle Copperplate, 17 x 14.75 inches, published by Island Press; Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery, Houston. Photo: Richard Sprengler
What was the process like for you working on this collection?
It has been an absolute delight, a serendipitous moment. Sometimes, very rarely, these things happen and the stars align. The possibility of creating a rigid and uncompromising graphic statement on a fluid substrate had been exercising me for a while and when I got the call from Dan it was quite a moment. He has been nothing but encouraging and the collaboration has been open, honest and inclusive throughout. We couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.
Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody
The Broad
Los Angeles
May 27—October 8, 2023
The Broad
@thebroadmuseum
Keith Haring Foundation
@keithharingfoundation
Portrait of Sarah Loyer by Pau Pescador
Sarah Loyer is Curator and Exhibitions Manager at The Broad. Loyer has curated numerous exhibitions, including Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody (2023), the first full-scale exhibition of the artist’s work in Los Angeles, and This Is Not America’s Flag (2022), featuring the work of over twenty artists critically engaging the US symbol. She was the host curator for The Broad’s presentations of Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983 (2019), organized by Tate Modern, London, and Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors (2017), organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. In 2020, she received a Curatorial Award for Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators. Loyer has a Masters in Public Art Studies from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in Media Studies and Cultural Studies from The New School.