Film UbuWebMatali Crasset (b. 1965)
Hometrack 01/02 (2003)
d fuse 05 (2005)
Matali Crasset was born in 1965 in Châlons-en-Champagne. Her parents are farmers and she spent her childhood in Normée, a small village of 80 inhabitants. After her graduation at the E.N.S.C.I. workshops in 1991, she participated in the Milan Triennial with her project "Domestic Trilogy", a set of three appliances diffusing warmth - whispers and intimacy -, light - images and memories -, and water - scents and swirls. She first stayed in Milan where she worked with Denis Santachiara on architecture and design projects, and on the organization of exhibitions. Back in Paris, she began working with Philippe Starck at the Agency and for Thomson Multimedia, where she stayed five years and became head of Thomson's design centre, Thim Thom. In 1998, she founded her own company. Her reflection on domestic and urban rituals inspired her to create objects and furniture for Artemide, Authentics, Cristal Saint-Louis, Delta, DIM, Domodinamica, Domeau & Perès, Dornbracht, Edra, LaCie, Lexon, Möve, nekt /Pantone-Universe, Néotu, Orangina, Peyroulet & cie, Ricard, Sam Laïk, Seb, s.m.a.k., ThomsonS?, and to design a street furniture project, ?The empathic chair?, for which she received a grant form the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam
In 1996, thanks to the V.I.A., she could freely develop her domestic office furniture project, "W at hôm?, an evidence of her deep interest in new technologies. In 1997, she was awarded the Grand Prize for Design of the city of Paris, and was chosen by the Sue Ryder Foundation to design the church furniture for the "Maison de Marie" chapel in Lourdes. In 1998, she received a F.I.A.C.R.E. grant from the Ministry of Culture to help her develop her project for an "autogenous design". In 1999, she was awarded the "Grand Prix de la Presse Internationale de la Critique du Meuble Contemporain". In 2000 and 2001, she designed the interior of a private villa in Nontron in the Dordogne and, together with professionals of the artistic milieu, she imagined "Pol'arisation", the future furniture for the Experimental Center of Artistic Professions.
Matali Crasset has worked on numerous exhibitions. She has designed the exhibition scenography for the shows ?Paris-Milano? and ?Bulb? organized by Intramuros, and for ?Wash the future? at the Espace Carole de Bona, and she is the creator of the "Morroccan Bar" of the exhibition "Le Maroc Désorienté" at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. Furthermore, she has imagined a touring exhibtion for the Comité Colbert and the Camif in 1999, and in 2001, has conceived a show on the famous Hermes silk "carré" in the United States, and designed the "Archilab" show in Orléans. She is in charge of the "Première Vision" forum since 1999, has designed the "Who's next" (1998/2000) and "Première Classe" shows (2000), and the ?Extra trend show : open? at the "Tendence" fair in Frankfurt in 2000. In 2002, she has created the installation ?Casaderme?, the house that breathes, for the Pitti Immagine Uomo show in Florence, an experimental bathroom project ?Update/ 3 spaces in one? for Dornbracht, on display at the Ulrich Fieder gallery in Cologne, and has designed the scenography for the Hermes exhibition "Cheval, figure d'espace" in Moscow.
Matali Crasset is regularly invited to design schools as a visiting lecturer, in France (Ecole des Beaux-arts, Bordeaux and Reims, Les Ateliers, Paris) and abroad (Danmarksdesignskole, Copenhagen, Domus Academy, Milan, Ecal, Lausanne, Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam). In 2001, she began exploring the new field of interior design: the advertisement agency Red Cell in Paris, her own home and workshop, and a private villa near Annecy. She also created the interior design of a high-class hotel in Nice, "Hi. hôtel". She is currently working on a project for a pigeon house commissioned by the Fondation de France, in Caudry in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais.