Extraction waste, palm fiber, clay: how does material become a living archive and foster a dialogue with contemporary creation at the intersection of design and art?
Far from being mere supports, the materials brought together in Vie des Formes function as living archives. This idea can be found in the work of anthropologist Tim Ingold, for whom an artifact always reflects its maker's relationship with the world they inhabit, and in theorist Jane Bennett's concept of “vibrant matter,” according to which non-human elements actively participate in the ecological systems around us. This talk brings together Dushyant Bansal and Priyanka Sharma ( Studio Raw Material ), designers and residents of the 2024 AlUla Design Residency program, Kevin Rouff ( Studio ThusThat ) and Paul Moustapha Ledron , designers and residents of the 2025 AlUla Design Residency program, in conversation with Dominique Petit-Frère , curator and co-founder of Limbo Accra, to explore material as a vehicle for memory, transformation, and creation. Through projects such as Harrat by Studio ThusThat (copper slag transformed into facade tiles) , the palm fiber used by Paul Ledron in Lafiya , and Studio Raw Material's research into extraction waste, they explore how materials often regarded as secondary can become the starting point for new narratives. The talk will be moderated by Emily Marant, associate curator of the exhibition and founder of Studio Marant.
Source: paris.fr — photo: Studio ThusThat, Harrat