Asserting its wish to play with the flimsy distinctions between “objets d’art” and practical objects and to question the legitimacy of an exhibition on the fringes of such an outstanding event as the Milan Salone del Mobile, ECAL has invited visual artist John M Armleder to curate an exhibition displaying side by side the works of students from the Bachelor Fine Arts and the Bachelor Industrial Design programmes.

After having (re)visited some of John M Armleder exhibitions and seen his iconic pieces, the Furniture Sculpture among others, the students used their chosen materials and processes to devise their exhibition pieces, which they developed at ECAL during a full semester under the watchful eye of designer and professor Christophe Guberan and Stéphane Kropf, artist and Head of the Bachelor Fine Arts.

Playing with scale, shapes, colours and materials, the exhibited works defy pre-established categories: a rocking zebra for gangling children, a handless clock, a minimal painting with maximalist details, taped ceramic vases, a menhir made from recycled plastic, concrete marble… All piled up in a visual cacophony that is happily deliberate.

Photos by ECAL/Younès Klouche assisted by Marceau Avogadro and Flora Mottini