Artist’s Biography
At the forefront of the international design scene, Mathieu Lehanneur is one of the few designers of his generation with a genuine multi-disciplinary approach to creativity: his projects stretch the realms of product design and object to architecture, craft and technology.
Lehanneur thrives on creating spectacular projects that are intended to enchant and to encourage wellbeing. His work defies traditional descriptions of ‘design’, ‘science’ and ‘art’.
Ranked among the ‘100 World top designers and influencers’ by Wallpaper* and Surface magazines, he is described as the ‘champion of intellectual agility in the field of contemporary design’ by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA-NY.
Mathieu Lehanneur’s office collaborates with a number of prestigious brands across a wide replica watches variety of sectors including Nike, Veuve Clicquot, Audemars Piguet, Poltrona Frau, Pullman Hotels, Cartier, Air France, Schneider Electric, JCDecaux, Becton Dickinson and Sony. Lehanneur is also a partner of several companies in the areas of technology, cosmetology and urban mobility.
Mathieu Lehanneur has earned numerous awards including the ‘Grand Prix’ for creativity, awarded by the City of Paris, and the ‘Best Invention Award’ by US magazine Popular Science for ‘Andrea’, a plant home air filtration system, created in partnership with Harvard University and based on studies developed by NASA.
In 2009, the designer was invited to share his vision at the TED Global conference and, in 2012, Gestalten editions published a book dedicated to his work. A retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Grand Hornu – Innovation and Design Centre, in Belgium.
Mathieu Lehanneur’s works can be found among some of the most renowned public and private collections including the MoMA-NY and MoMA San Francisco, and the Pompidou Centre and the Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris.
Lehanneur latest projects include the ’50 Seas’ exhibition, a collection of 50 unique enameled-faience wall-works, showcased at Christie’s and at Monaco’s Oceanographic Museum; an exclusive space in the Air France new Business Rolex Replica Lounge at Charles de Gaulle Paris airport; the interior concept of Maison Kitsune?’s flagship store in New York; a series of limited edition pieces in marble and bronze, “Ocean Memories”, edited by Carpenters Workshop Gallery; a collection of furniture and lamps edited by his own brand and presented at Nomad – Monaco; an itinerant museum for the Swiss watchmaker luxury brand Audemars Piguet previously presented in Shanghai; his work “Liquid Marble” showcased at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London; the interior design of Cafe? Mollien at the Louvre Museum in Paris; a new concept of solar street lighting furniture launched during the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris COP- 21.
He is currently working on multiple projects such as a hybrid engine boat, a foldable electric bike, the interior design for hotels, stores and public spaces, as well as technological and pharmaceutical design…
Bio source https://www.mathieulehanneur.fr/why
Interview
Artist: Mathieu Lehanneu
Who were your mentors early in your career?
I think about three of them…I met the architect Francois Roche just after I left design school. His approach, freedom and vision have been key in my creative journey. He was mixing philosophy, science, and art in his practice. We have worked together on several experimental projects.
The scientist and Harvard University professor David Edwards has also been a mentor for me. He taught me that every single idea needs to be protected and carefully raised. It doesn’t mean that every single one needs to be developed but each one is a potential seed that could turn into a millenary oak tree.
The third one is Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMA, New York. She has supported me since my diploma project and continues to inspire me to this day.
You grew up in France. What was your childhood like?
I grew up in a large family, with six siblings and I am the youngest one. My childhood was pretty happy, but I was more of a contemplative child due to my position in the family.
As an artist, there is a process that you have to go through, to create something with intelligence and transcendence, living in the real, but aspiring to the extraordinary. For you, what does it take to create?
First, I love the way you summarize my target and expectations: “Something with intelligence and transcendence. Real but aspiring to the extraordinary.” The most important thing to reach is to try to forget the definition and traditional limits of my discipline. I don’t care if I am a designer, an artist, or an architect. My focus consists in what I want to create in the mind of the users or viewers. Whatever the material, whatever the processes or functions, the only thing that counts is the mental, fundamental, and spiritual experience it can create in your brain.
What’s the most indispensable item in your studio/practice?
The “no.” This verbal ‘item’ is key to keep aware of exigence and consistency. Every piece, every idea needs a lot of time, energy, and money to be developed. Nevertheless, I want to keep the freedom to say “no.” Like a “not yet,” “not that way,” “not now,” my “no” never means end, it only means to do it again, in a different way. “No” is always a new start.
You are a multidisciplinary artist, and your projects range from product design to architecture, craft, and technology. What challenges have you experienced, and how have you overcome them? Can you talk about your journey through the different mediums you work with?
A few years ago, I was commissioned to design a piece for a palliative care department in a famous hospital in Paris. The goal of my client was to bring art into this difficult context. I came up with the idea of creating a digital window in every single room. Titled “Tomorrow Is Another Day,” this work aims to bring a visual and interactive escape for each patient. It consists of a circular LED screen embodied in a UFO-like object hanging on the wall. Each screen diffuses the sky of tomorrow in every location on Earth you want to be connected to.
Turning an idea like this one into reality has been a huge challenge. It was not a question of material or process but finding a way to create an animation of the sky always unique, as the real sky can offer. We finally decided to get live information from one of the biggest worldwide weather-forecasting platforms and use that information to create auto-generative digital skies. In many projects like this one, the main challenge is not about design, materials, or processes but finding the best experts and systems to turn your scenario into reality.
Your method of producing art work – fusing “design,” “science” and “art” is incredibly stratified and detailed. How would you describe the evolution of your work?
I began to investigate the relationship between physiology, science, and psychology when I was in design school. My diploma project was research about how we could reinvent the design of medicine according to our compliance with medical treatment. I studied human behaviors towards medicine to improve the way to follow the treatment. I keep working on the same approach but in every aspect of our lives. I consider my pieces or works as active principles that can modify our states of mind.
The streaks of light in “Deep Time, Chandelier” are mesmerizing. How did you come up with this idea?
Deep Time is an endless streak of light, as Brancusi’s endless column. I love the idea of an object that would never stop growing, like the branch of a tree. It is made of bent glass tubes. I am currently trying to make it in porcelain. Porcelain can diffuse light in an exceptionally beautiful ethereal way. I have never worked with porcelain before, but it really makes sense for this project as it is one of the most ancient materials and perfect for a piece that talks about endless time.
You are among the world’s top designers and influencers in the field of contemporary art. Can you offer any examples of new styles that you’re working on or considering?
Making pieces able to live longer than you.
Making pieces as unique as you.
You’re currently working on multiple projects such as a hybrid engine boat, a foldable electric bike, the interior design for hotels, stores, and public spaces, as well as technological and pharmaceutical design. What else would you like to accomplish in the near future?
I would like to create a school. I was bored in school for years. I wanted to move, to learn by walking, by fighting or by playing. Our common educational tools are still not taking into account the way our bodies and brains work. I would love to design a school 2.0, from building to pencil.
If you weren’t creating art, what would you be doing?
I would be a doctor who would create his own medicine.
What is something you have learned as an artist, which would be helpful to other aspiring artists?
Before being sure that your mind and paths are strong and clear enough, do not spend your time seeing what others do. Try to focus on yourself, expect and accept to be lost, and eat only raw creative food. Being inspired by other artists means eating food that has been already digested. Inspiration must come from wild fields; this is the only way to get it rich with nutrients!
What latest projects would you like to share with our readers?
My Factory. Based near Paris, it is our new place to think, to draw, to test, to make, and to show!
Editor: Lisa Portscher
https://www.instagram.com/lisaportscher/
