Design Parade Hyères

Each summer, the Villa Noailles organizes Design Parade festival in two events: one in Toulon, for interior design, and one in Hyères, for design.

Through this new, unique event in France, Design Parade allows, over a professional extended weekend and during all summer, for the fullest view of the decorative arts in contemporary design. Design Parade Toulon and Hyères aim to discover, promote, and support the young generation in these complementary disciplines and to present, to members of the profession and the general public, international designers through exhibitions and conferences.

In accompanying these young talents, the festival supports equally artisanal skills along with industrial expertise, along with the assistance of its partners. The festival is also an opportunity to discover the heritage of these two neighboring towns, which both offer an expression of the architectural and decorative wealth of the Var region.

This summer at the Villa Noailles:

The collective exhibition of the ten finalists of the competition, including the projects by the Dutch designer Carolien Niebling (winner of the Grand Prix), Léa Bardin (France, winner of a Special Award), Arthur Hoffner (France, winner of the Public Award) and Ragna Ragnarsdottir (Iceland, winner of the Eyes on Talents x FRAME Special Mention).

Tutti Frutti, a personal exhibition of the French designer Inga Sempé. The exhibition blends together preliminary studies with finished objects manufactured over the past 15 years. Outline sketches, detailed plans, rough mock-ups or scaled models are displayed alongside furniture, lamps, rugs, textiles, and other objects designed for Italian, Scandinavian, and French societies.

Adrien Rovero, Doodle. By fooling the CNC machines program initially written to create objects, he has created a gallery of moving portraits. This lined language dialogues with his recent creations: Lausanne chairs with a perforated surface, Tenerife lamps with lava bases, Parallax mirror, Totem for Hermes’ petit h which composes a theatre of endearing and friendly figures.

Pernelle Poyer. Figurés, is the first personal exhibition of this young French designer who won the Grand Prix last year. Thanks to the festival’s partners she has developed boxes and vases during two residencies in Sèvres and at the CIRVA in Marseilles and with a grant offered by the kreo Gallery.

Maria Jeglinska, Arrêt sur image. French-Polish designer based in Warsaw and former finalist of the Design Parade contest, she has selected recent projects (tables, chairs, vases, tea set…) expressing her taste for drawings, which darken the pages of research notebooks.

Local know-how: Salernes Terracotta. Taken from the creative viewpoint of previous winners, this annual invitation to a geographical and temporal voyage within Provençal territories, stops things from becoming fossilized within a cliché. In 2017, it is Salernes Terracotta which is in the spotlight. A photographic commission placed with Anaïs Boileau documents all of the steps of this alchemy. Scenography by Thélonious Goupil.

Laureline Galliot, DIGITAL PAINT:LAB and Mathieu Peyroulet Ghilini, SPACE DRAWINGS. Recent graphic works of two former winners of the festival currently in residency at the Kujoyama Villa in Kyoto.

Samy Rio, Itinéraires. Since the Grand Prix he won in 2015, the French designer continued his research on bamboo and has seen his vases edited by Sèvres & CIRVA.

Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, Patrons of the 20th century: A journey through the collections of the Musée national d’art moderne – Centre national d’art et de culture Georges-Pompidou.

Giacometti, Man Ray, Dalí, Buñuel, Brancusi, Ernst, Laurens, Lipchitz etc. The Villa Noailles’ collection, which was in a state of perpetual transformation, evolved according to the installation of new artworks and affinities, combining sculptures, paintings, literature, but also photography and cinema. This exhibition does not aim to map out this improbable cartography, instead it intends to re-establish its spirit. This important history is inscribed within the Villa Noailles itself, this exceptional building where these two patrons welcomed so many artists and intellectuals.