Lighthouse rehabilitation of a shop into a sustainable, innovative sculpture-home with 80 talents
4 years of experimentations are necessary to transform a common old shop into
a habitable sculpture combining sustainability, poetry & innovation in the
Parisian nest of Romanticism.
Each element of daily life (handle, air, spoon, insulation) is the subject of
reflecting & challenging 80 disciplines (dressmaker, metal industrial, sommelier,
plumber) to obtain new experiences & objects; all dialoguing together thanks to
use, form, color.
The fuel: pleasure to excel/build together.
National
France
{Empty}
Mainly urban
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2023-01-15
As an individual in partnership with other persons
Transformation of a former travel agency into an experimental “sustainable, beautiful, inclusive” living space: Maison Guermont is a habitable relational total artwork that allies ancestral craftsmanship with high tech and reconnects the now-sleepy neighbourhood of New Athens in Paris (the nest of Romanticism where artists and scientists gathered to live and work together a century ago) with its golden age.
This was possible thanks to a marvelous human and technical 4-year-long adventure that brought together 80 French companies of all types (start-up, industrialist, dressmaker, plumber... best sommelier in the world), all working with pleasure and benevolence on the challenge of creating a total artwork prototype home that offers a new way of living in this neighbourhood in transition.
The many beautiful manufactured objects that form part of the project dialogue together and give sense to the living space itself thanks to use, color & form in global harmony.
In 2023, this total artwork prototype, renovated space, is becoming a NEB object: opening to the first visitors, inhabitants and cultural associations to experience a desirable living experience. Seasonal conversations with changemaking women will co-enlighten different aspects of the achieved total artwork, in resonance with other places in the EU. This public revelation is a manifest opportunity for the NEB Community.
Creation process:
- The artist dreams/feels, draws questioning concept/form, finds the best talents to materialize, understands their desires to be challenged, joined together.
- Invited talented partners co-produce the prototype, combine their best skills, deliver together an innovative “less is more” live and learn experience.
Without money but with passion and creativity, we create beauty, mobilize a community of diverse skills and give hope despite the covid crisis; the reveal phase invites and challenges the neighbourhood for positive change… we can move mountains!
totalart-bauhaus
rehabilitation
sustainability
ancestral-high-techs
pleasure-adventure-together
We can continue to build important things while respecting the environment.
New-tech can be a good help for this.
In the total artwork the talents are local: 80 French companies.
Resources are used sparingly: up-cycling, 3D printing to save material.
The air comes from outdoors and is experimentally depolluted.
No more plastic bottles, the water comes from the tap sparkling and purified with a new system without chemistry.
The paints are organic and floor is made of Alsacian wood in order to reduce volatile organic compounds.
The coloured leather and textiles are made without polluting ink.
The chair is made with 1.2 kg of recycled steel and scraps of fabric from the upholsterer that arrived by bus.
The warming windows (experimental warming lighting mirror) save 30% of electricity.
A big work is also made to remotely control all elements (water/air purifiers, fume detector, safety features, glass warmer, hot water tank, electro-valve for water evacuation, secure access by short-duration code received on phone) from a unique interoperable tool made by the domoticians.
It is a mix of smart uses, cutting-edge techs and craftsmanship to consume less, feel proud and live sustainably/happier/comfortably in harmony with the Living.
Producing rare & long lasting (thus resistant & beautiful) things without polluting is a good way to be eco-friendly.
“A magical place, art and technology at the service of a new poetics of living. Living as an artist, an artist who is at the same time in love with materials/colors/forms and passionate about the most contemporary techs is the adventure that Guermont offers us with her total artwork. Within this "machine" combining emotion and advanced features, a new art of living is emerging linked to today’s challenges like sustainability & inclusivity.” – Antoine Picon, Doctoral Program Director at Harvard for architecture and technology.
Art has no limit, it is a universal language connecting oneself to another.
The total artwork connects the work of 80 talents (the sewing by Chanel works with a company breeding ducks for DOUDOUNE).
Strategy is to give functions to artworks in order to make them an essential + to daily living. Due to the lockdown we reconnect with indoors and the Living.
One can dream, the faucet becomes a functional sculpture (the form showing that water is precious).
Poetry and functionality are thought together, thanks to hidden techniques.
The artworks-objects interact by use, 3 colours (white/gold/Blue Sky of Paris) and 3 forms (pyramid/cloud/madeleine): SPOON, CARPET, FAUCET dialogue thanks to the same pyramid.
New poetic experiences: have a cocktail + shower in BAR-DOUCHE; listen to clouds by touching the wall.
I join philosopher Alain de Botton on the impact of architecture on well-being and Stendhal on “beauty is happiness’ promise.”
“Everything is connected to everything, from the micro to the macro, from function to form: Guermont's attention for rich scenographic detail, for local craftsmanship and the balance of old/new achieved by deliberate stylistic transgression, remind of Gio Ponti. Her spatial conversion is based on details on various scales that communicate with each other via echoes, while different materials serve as transitions both separating and connecting, in many instances taking on a narrative character. She strongly believes that architecture and fixtures must be totally good or in today's language perfectly accommodating the needs of the user. The expression of happiness is perfectly visible in her choices for balanced geometric patterns articulated around triangles that turn into diamonds; for quiet but precious ornaments such as the bespoke forms of shells and clouds; for the joyous luminosity and steady variety of the colors white/gold/blue: the trinity.” – Chris Dercon, President of RMN-Grand Palais.
The criteria used to select the partners of the total artwork are not money, size of the company nor gender, place of birth... but the supposed capacity to work with others, professional talents & sympathy.
I want to show that there are talents in many fields in France & Europe, and they deserve to be enlightened. Some talents were difficult to find because they are kept in the shadows by some obedient industries. Other are revealed by the project's interaction with a new knowledge & know-how.
Why is a lacemaker paid less than a domotician? In the total artwork, all the partners have equal importance (devoted time to them, communication, festive highlights...) because for me they are all essential & complemetary.
For ex, the freelance embroiderer who spent 8 weeks to make 2 sq cm of lace benefits from the same visibility as the aluminium industrialist, the gilder or the plumber.
The partners had the opportunity to work with an artist, contribute to an artwork, innovate with an engineer, for the first time for many of them.
They discovered other persons (8 other collaborations between partners that didn't know each other before) and shared the same adventure. Give meaning to work, dream and surpass are important for change.
I have tried as much as possible to understand their know-how, to support them all & challenge beyond the best of each together . Even if during first lockdown I continued my "jobsite meetings" virtually (thanks to Zoom, scans of the renovation site) just because I felt that my partners needed, relation is a well of positivity.
Also, it was glad to see partners congratulate each other (some of them never receive any compliment). During a site meeting, the brass maker arrived and put on the table FAUCET PHARES, everybody said "wow!" and he became pink.
Shared love & self-confidence are so important to make the world better.
This all will be enlarged in 2023 with wider inclusive activities & performances with the public & the NEB community.
People:
1 artist/engineer
+ 80 talented partner companies (= approx 400 people) from all fields of society
+ Ccompanies that are not official partners (they offer material but do not innovate) or cannot go to the end by the unpredictability of the adventure (= 100 people). NB: I met 12 plumbers to find the good one who can understand my ideas and is capable of working with the other partners
+ Sponsors for the artistic residency
+ Police for safety
+ Closest coffee-bar to receive our packages
+ The public
Benefits:
- Participate to a very unique human adventure
- Be part of a community sharing the same values based on pleasure to work together and to excel to obtain artwork with innovation and sustainability
- Contribute/discover to an artwork
- Dream
- Have pleasure/share success & happiness
- Work with an artist
- Be challenged
- Do R&D, to innovate with new techs and materials
- Create new concepts/way of living/experiences
- Know other talents
- Be brought to light (communication)
To Create beauty and make accessible thanks to the edited/industrialized pieces
To Imagine a new kind of house in the continuity of the Bauhaus spirit (cf extract
of the book in appendices)
- Organize seazonal conversations with changemaking women, the NEB community
- Vivify a neighborhood , connect change with inherited story
- Create free and new performances and events for the public in the street
- The public will discover from the street the total artwork (through
2 window-screens). In and out will becomes a “stage” for performances (dance,
storytelling, craftsmen show...). Conversations, living library, cooking and upcycling art…will be organized inside.
Day and night “interaction” is applied by installing on the façade a piece made of Polysensual Concrete that emits sounds when it is touched and revealing the Total Artwork.
Nothing could be possible without the talents of each partner and without the empathy and creativity of the leader-artist.
The concept of this project is to understand each know-how and then to challenge and marry them.
The result is a sustainable and beautiful rehabilitation AND also an artwork made thanks to the talents of 80 companies (very motivated and not paid).
The many beautiful manufactured objects that form part of the project dialogue together and give sense to the living space itself thanks to use, color and form in a desirable global harmony.
In 2023, this total artwork prototype, renovated space, is becoming a NEB object: opening to first visitors, inhabitants and cultural associations, that will experiment a desirable living experience. Seasonal conversations with changemaking women will co-enlighten different aspects of the achieved total artwork, in resonance with others places in the EU. This public revelation is a manifest opportunity for the NEB Community.
Art is an exceptional way to cross borders: all fields of society (plumber, structural engineer, dress-maker, painter...) are participants in this total artwork.
We can create dialogue locally with a common subject like rehabilitation of an ordinary shop.
1 - Create the space: an experimental space for working together, imagine a Manifest renovated house of the future as the Bauhaus did one century ago, but using the techs of today and the sustainable goals.
2 - Identify, understand, challenge the talents and make together (meeting twice a month) in a nice atmosphere with the same goal: make an artwork that is sustainable, habitable and beautiful.
This project is a human adventure based on pleasure and work.
It was not easy, and because they were challenged, the partners are again happier & prouder of the results.
Without any money but with the envy to excel together and to be sustainable, we achieved a piece that pushes new limits in arts, sustainability & construction.
This has implied a total dedication from me (I moved out of Paris to have more silence and to be to totally focused on my 80 partners). Covid made the obstacles greater (indeed, when you are not stressed, with a calm future and no worry of employees/clients/materials/travels, it is easier to take time to work with an artist and to innovate). Back-ache, love problem or shortage of material... my partners (who are often alone at the top of their enterprise) called me. I became "Milene-cookie" to cheer them up.
We are all proud of difficulties we overcome & of the quality of the result, listening to the comments of 1st visitors who are experts of various fields (art, architecture, construction, sustainability, innovation) and of partners: cf appendices.
The mix beauty+sustainable+inclusive was obtained via a very innovative process led by empathy.
All the partners have the feeling to belong to a community of excellency, cf testimonies page 11-14 of the PJ. All of them have trusted me, surpassed themselves, accepted to interact with other fields. All of that without being paid, just for the sake of art.
The new techniques, artworks-objects and experiences of this project are prototypes; 10 partners are so proud of them that they want to edit/industrialize them to share with a wider audience.
Every point was subject for creativity. For example, as I could not push out the walls I had the idea of exploiting unused spaces like the backfill of the floor to make another room for library/washing machine/dishwasher/technical installations.
“Just as the economist Joseph Schumpeter theorized the concept of creative destruction, MAISON GUERMONT enters the virtuous logic of recycling without preconceived ideas or dogmatism. It escapes the indigence of banality, because it frees us from prestressed thoughts, because it revitalizes a neighborhood, because it goes beyond egotistical creation to celebrate collective work, its effects are similar to acupuncture.
The cement of this construction? Passion. Know-how. The love of work well done. The magic of meetings. The pleasure of working together. The desire to share. The beauty of something free.
She knows how to find the missing link, to brush egos aside and to highlight individual talents in the service of the creation of the work of art resulting from her imagination.
Carried by a charisma inversely proportional to the financial means, encouraged by the pleasure to make dialogue between improbable universes, the management of operations led by Milène rests on a logic of co-production combining sensitivity, ancestral know-how, technical innovations, all embodying French excellence.” – Delphine Désveaux, architecture expert.
Innovation is used to concretize art by renovation (not only for the digital part but also for the uses and interfaces).
Art is used to make a house for the Living.
The gathering of many people in complementary fields to make a permanent and innovative artwork, without need for approvals nor exterior money is uncommon today.
Without any money but passion and creativity we succeeded in creating beauty, mobilizing a community of diverse skills of excellency, giving hope despite the covid crisis, interacting with the neighbourhood … we can move mountains!
“The power of the artist lies in her ability to transgress conventions, to make reality go wild. By conceiving this place of life as a global work where everything is designed by her and conceived under her artistic direction, from the floor to the ceiling, Milène Guermont allows herself all the deviations from conventions, all the audacities. Her magic wand is none other than her creative breath, her ability to give life to her world in order to offer it to the public. In doing so, she inoculates her partners and accomplices with the most beautiful and virtuous of viruses, that of creative energy, carried by her belief in the strength of collective intelligence. With her total artwork, Milène Guermont dares to reinvent everything. With this requirement applied to each detail: that everything be poetic and functional at the same time, durable and possibly transposable to another environment.” – Marion Vignal art/design curator, journalist at Le Monde.
“Maison Guermont spells out an ‘alphabet’ of poetic and innovative artworks-objects that rethink daily life as a spectacle and sensualize the relationship with things,
between an experimental pocket-sized Trianon of the 21st century and a luxury start-up 2.0.
Many correspondences and echoes exist between this work and the territories of ‘French luxury’ that combines beauty, innovation & durability.” – dixit Marie-Clémence Barbé-Conti
1 - To find a space to rehabilitate or not used
2 - To identify nice experts in complementary fields
3 - To create a benevolent atmosphere based on conviviality
4 - To use the space to gather and to experiment
5 - To invite the experts to express their techniques & their dreams
6 - To transform all of that into a common work thanks to the poetry and creativity of the artist
Due to the lockdown, more attention is paid to indoors.I am convinced that one can dream thanks to a faucet.
Continuation of this experimental total artwork:
- Edition of objects (with less expensive material to make these dreaming pieces affordable to more households)
- Industrialization of some concepts (BAR-DOUCHE to have bath and cocktail simultaneously), techniques (sparking purified water from the faucet), tool (interoperable domotician system) and materials (the purified air that comes unobtrusively from the wall of the house).
- Transfer of the mindset and creation process (without money but with passion) into other fields, know-how, countries or other kinds of spaces and objects to transform them with creativity/beauty/innovation. It's particularly relevant for the countries of Europe due to the amazing inheritance of know-how/knowledge.
The New European Bauhaus Award can help achieving another step while motivating other creators from all Europe to be an extended part of the total artwork in Paris, like a dancer from Norway to create a special dance into it, a composer from Austria to imagine music inspired by it, a master kook from Italy to create a dinner influenced by it.
Your competition can be a communicative recognition of 4 years of hard work and transform our project into a unification of European talents.
“The history of the hotel industry teaches that it’s private initiatives carried out in a very personal way by a few visionaries that gave birth to new ways of living that were then adapted for the benefit of the greatest number.Her total artwork offers a new approach to the habitat at a time when the whole planet is led to isolate itself and to spend more time at home.We can only encourage her poetic, intelligent, eco-responsible and federative house.
This habitable sculpture is off the beaten track and at the same time is in line with the ‘Beautiful/Good/Useful’ of today’s modernity” – Christian Mantei, President of Atout France
Global challenges : inclusion - live together, innovation/sustainabitity
Situation: no money, need for shelter, cleaving and stressed atmosphere (amplified with covid)
Fuel: pleasure and passion
Solution: rehabilitation of a shop into both a house and an artwork
Means: art/innovation, empathy/creativity
Actions: to federate, make dream, innovate, pollute less, excel/surpass, create beauty/new way of living/housing
Notably:
- art + innovation is a bright way to rehabilitate and vivify a neighborhood
- any point can be the subject of creativity (making use of the backfill of the floor to gain space; having purified/sparking water from the faucet to save plastic; & excellence can be everywhere
- empathetic artists/engineers can create beauty and innovations with respect to the planet and passion shared with a community
“Milène’s life and work merge in her total artwork which convey both the historical depth of the past and the innovative creativity of the present, the taste for the useful and the aesthetic. The exhibition, the mediatization and the sharing of this total work of art with the guests of the home will constitute the ultimate step of the creative process, the activation in a way of
the home, following the example of the romantic salons that were considered in their time if not as places of reception, above all as true windows of contemporary creation.” – Gaëlle Rio, Musée de la Vie Romantique’s Director
“After interventions on a city-wide scale which have been installed around the world, Milène devotes her energy to a project modest in scale and immense in ambition: the creation of an experimental dwelling on the ground floor of a building in New Athens. She has recruited 80 craftsmen and industrialists to explore using the many dimensions of a creation using the most refined and innovative materials” – Jean-Louis Cohen, critic, member of MOMA’s Architecture & Design Committee, chair of ”Architecture and Urban Form” at College de France
