Villa Noailles Design Parade 2022

Hall Haus (Abdoulaye Niang, Sammy Bernoussi, Teddy Sanches, Zakari-Hocine Boukhari), ‘Curry Mango’, 2022, Design Parade Hyères
COURTESY: Hall Haus & Design Parade Hyères

THIS WEEKEND, THE Villa Noailles in Hyères, in the South of France, hosts the renowned Design Parade Hyères, a celebration of contemporary design – this year in its 16^th iteration. In near-by Toulon, the Design Parade Toulon will launch, in parallel, its 6^th international festival of interior design. These two festivals and their related exhibitions, running all through the summer, remind visitors that the South of France is not just about sun and sea, but also about creativity, joyfully expressed.

Jacques Averna, ‘Vase Courbes-Circuits, Cirva’, 2021, Design Parade Hyères
COURTESY: Jacques Averna & Design Parade Hyères

The international festival of design was founded in 2006 by Jean-Pierre Blanc, a former award-winning film director and screenwriter, and director of the modernist Villa Noailles (now an arts centre). Twenty years earlier, in 1986, he had established the now-famous annual International Festival of Fashion and Photography in Hyères, his birthplace, promoting young creatives in fashion, photography and fashion accessories. The Design Parade was launched to inspire and encourage young designers by organising a competition, with ten finalists exhibiting their work in the iconic villa.

Villa Noailles
COURTESY: Villa Noailles / PHOTOGRAPH: © Olivier Amsellem

Ten years later, Blanc created a partner enterprise, Design Parade Toulon, an international festival of interior design, rewarding ten finalists in a parallel competition for interior design. By 2019, these events had gained such attention that the Centre Pompidou in Paris agreed to loan works from the national collection of design to an annual exhibition at the Hôtel des Arts in Toulon. This year, the third edition is titled, ‘Intérieurs Modernes, 1920-1930’ and includes work by pioneering luminaries, such as Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier and Pierre Chareau.

Charlotte Perriand, ‘Extendable table’, 1927, at ‘Intérieurs Modernes’ exhibition, Hôtel Des Arts TPM, Toulon 2022
COURTESY: © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ JeanClaude Planchet/Dist. RMN-GP / Copyright Artwork: © Adagp, Paris, 2022

As Hyères has become a critical node for contemporary design, so other local institutions have responded. In 2018, the Fondation Carmignac, founded in 2000 by Edouard Carmignac, a French entrepreneur, opened the Villa Carmignac on the island of Porquerolles. This 2,000m² art space, in the midst of a carefully maintained section of national park, is open to the public, offering an annual art exhibition.

Eileen Gray, ‘Rolling table’, 1926-1929, at ‘Intérieurs Modernes’ exhibition, Hôtel Des Arts TPM, Toulon 2022
COURTESY: © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ Jean-Claude Planchet/Dist. RMN-GP / Copyright Artwork: © droits réservés

This year, the themed exhibition is ‘The Dream of Ulysses’, which has been overseen by Francesco Stocchi, the curator of modern and contemporary art at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. As well as drawing upon Carmignac’s significant collection of over 300 modern and contemporary artworks, the exhibition also contains national and international loans.

Pierre Chareau, ‘Chair model EZ849’, 1927, at ‘Intérieurs Modernes’ exhibition, Hôtel Des Arts TPM, Toulon 2022
COURTESY: © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI/ Bertrand Prévost/Dist. RMN-GP / Copyright Artwork: Domaine public

For the past two years the Fondation Carmignac has been a regular collaborator with the Villa Noailles, commissioning designers exhibited at the Design Parade to create furniture for the location.

Benoît Maire, ‘Fauteil Couchant’, 2020
COURTESY: Benoît Maire & Fondation Carmignac

In 2020, the artist Benoît Maire designed 200 deck chairs for the foundation; this year six outdoor nap beds are to be unveiled. Inspired by triangular fruit ladders used in local olive groves, the beds are designed by Edgar Jayet, winner of the 2021 Grand Prix Design Parade Toulon Van Cleef & Arpels.

Maquette of outdoor nap bed, designed by Edgar Jayet for the Fondation Carmignac, 2022
COURTESY: Edgar Jayet & Fondation Carmignac

In a new gesture, this year, the Fondation Carmignac is offering a prize to one of the winners of the object design or interior architecture competition. The winner, chosen in consultation with both juries and the foundation, will be announced this weekend. Part of the prize is a residency at the Villa Carmignac, amidst its wildflowers, vineyards and olive groves, leading to the creation of an object, or interior design project, inspired by the philosophy of the place.

Samy Rio, ‘Bench’, 2018, commissioned for the opening of Fondation Carmignac from tree trunks found on the site
COURTESY: Samy Rio & Fondation Carmignac

As the festivities get underway, visitors will be reminded of the inspired patronage of Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, who used the Villa Noailles (built between 1923 and 1927), as a stage for experimental artistic encounters and exchanges. Visionary in their understanding of the multi-faceted nature of modernity, they drew into their exuberant circle artists, writers, philosophers, photographers, architects and designers. The house itself is a pioneering modernist house commissioned from the young Robert Mallet-Stevens, which they then filled with a montage of furnishings by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Jean-Michel Frank, Charlotte Perriand and Francis Jourdain. Although most of the furniture is no longer here, the spirit of the avant-garde lives on.

Laura Dominici, ‘Magic Tapestry’, 2022, Design Parade Hyères
COURTESY: Laura Dominici & Design Parade Hyères