Translated by Bethszabee Garner

Creator of the torch for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and named Designer of the Year by Maison & Objet, Mathieu Lehanneur explores new facets of design with his scientific yet dreamlike universe. His objects, which are both tangible and elusive, conceived and designed in limited editions in his factory, fascinate collectors. We meet a creator in tune with his times.

Désirée de Lamarzelle: How does one become the creator of the torch for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games?

Mathieu Lehanneur: Paris 2024 launched a competition at the end of 2022 and I was lucky enough to be chosen from a dozen shortlisted designers. For the torch, I worked on the ergonomics, which are usually flared, playing more on the symmetry of the proportions between the upper and lower parts. My starting point was equality and parity, which are strong values of the 2024 Olympics, but also the Seine, which plays a key role in the opening ceremony, creating a play of waves and vibrations.

Désirée de Lamarzelle: It is said that you infuse your objects with a touch of the irrational. How would you define your work?

M.L.: I like objects to play with our perceptions and for us to feel a touch of the irrational through them. I strive to ensure that everything I produce exudes a sense of magic and mystery. Sometimes it's purely visual, like when you freeze fire in motion, or very technical, like when you place blocks of marble on glass bubbles to make a table.

Désirée de Lamarzelle: With the challenge of more environmentally friendly design, has the profession of designer changed much?

M.L.: The industrialization of furniture dates back to the “glorious 30s,” when it was necessary to produce quickly, cheaply, and in large quantities for as many people as possible. With the advent of mass production, designers in the 1980s and 1990s fantasized about having their chair in every home. Today, we have almost everything, and the ecological challenge is to produce much less. Instead of endlessly adding to furniture catalogs, we need to find solutions to prevent billions of pieces of plastic from floating on the surface of the seas.

Désirée de Lamarzelle: What about creativity? Design should not be seen as a simple solution to a problem.

M.L.: The question of creative freedom is still relevant, but it is no longer a sufficient condition for producing an object. The difficulty for many designers who are tied to brands is to respond to the demand to sell as many objects as possible. We now need to think about other ways of operating, instead of continuing to produce blindly in large quantities. But if we reverse the logic and start from the principle of producing less, we can finally allow ourselves to choose better materials and production conditions. We rediscover quality and preserve creativity.

Désirée de Lamarzelle: Like your Andrea air purifier, which won the “Invention Award” for combining technology and the use of nature.

M.L.: With the Andrea project, it was exciting to solve an imperceptible but very real problem, which is indoor pollution. We now know that the air we breathe in our homes is more harmful than the air we breathe outside, even above a busy boulevard. These are gases, generally from building materials, paints, varnishes, carpets, etc. For this purifier, I didn't just want to use human innovation with cutting-edge technology, but what nature already has to offer us: plants that multiply the effectiveness of indoor pollution control.

Désirée de Lamarzelle: With the Factory, an 800 m2 industrial building that combines a workshop, office, materials library, and showroom, you become a brand.

M.L.: Our first objective was to guarantee our independence so that we wouldn't have to depend on external clients. With a place that brings together all the stages from creation to production and distribution, we have the freedom to produce the things we believe in. We develop them the way we want to, but we are also able to tell their story. It's a place where we've tried to “verticalize” our needs as much as possible: we assemble the pieces, pack them, and ship them. The Factory, which allows us to establish ourselves as a brand, is a real platform for my teams and, potentially, for others with whom we can collaborate.

Désirée de Lamarzelle: Through your very mineral works, can we talk about inspiration from land art?

M.L.: Yes, I'm a big fan of land art, even if the movement as it existed in the 1960s was often a kind of confrontation, sometimes violent, with nature. What interests me in nature is seeing how I can reintegrate it, or how I can freeze the reliefs of the sea in marble. I'm interested in all these materials or reactions, such as fire or liquid, that we can't grasp. I like to capture the ephemeral.

Désirée de Lamarzelle: There is a delicate balance between craftsmanship, history, nature, and technique in your creations.

M.L.: I wonder what we are at our core as human beings, and whether we were already like this back in the caves. I don't think we've evolved one iota. We have a whole host of social and political structures and technological objects that have progressed considerably, but what we really are, what moves us, frightens us and makes us dream, hasn't changed one bit. I remember as a child spending hours in front of the ocean thinking that it was the best place in the world. I didn't need to think anymore, I was in the right place at the right time. These are the things that interest me: what is it that makes us feel a little more alive at a certain moment?

Désirée de Lamarzelle: Have you always wanted to create?

M.L.: As a child, the youngest in a large family, I was very contemplative: I observed the things around me. Later, attracted by the visual arts, I realized that I didn't want to live in the solitude of a studio, and almost by chance I walked into a design school. Among the projects that are close to my heart, I would really like to design a school. I was quite bored there, and I discovered its potential when I left. There are surely a whole lot of things still to think about and invent, from pens to buildings, so that we can live it as it deserves to be lived. If you want to commission a primary school, I'm your man.

Désirée de Lamarzelle: Is there an object you would have liked to invent?

M.L.: One of my references, an object I would have loved to create but which is absolutely unattainable, is the airbag: air, a little fabric, and a sensor. It's hidden in our dashboard, and it deploys in a quarter of a second to save our lives and then disappears again. It's the Holy Grail in my eyes.

Désirée de Lamarzelle: How would you define your job?

M.L.: It's the job of a designer, which no one really knows how to define, and which is based on a great deal of freedom of action. It's a lucky thing; there aren't many jobs like that. We don't really know where it begins or where it ends.

Désirée de Lamarzelle: You were also named Designer of the Year 2024 by Maison & Objet.

M.L.: It's a very ambitious trade show. I suggested they do a project on survivalism rather than a retrospective, and they agreed even though we didn't really know where we were going with it. We imagined a house where you could live completely autonomously and in touch with nature. This raises a lot of questions: what conditions do I want to live in? How can I produce my own energy and food while still having comfort? The Outonomy project is a minimalist yet optimal living ecosystem that draws on the history of isolated dwellings such as igloos, cabins, and yurts. It's an opportunity to ask ourselves: what do I really need?

Désirée de Lamarzelle: Among your many projects, you have just opened a studio in New York.

M.L.: Yes, it's our “pied-à-terre", located in Manhattan, New York, to welcome our clients and collectors. They come by appointment to see our pieces in the “natural” setting of a large apartment. It seemed natural to set up shop in the United States because we received an incredible welcome when we started developing our own collections.

Désirée de Lamarzelle: I hear you manage your own social media accounts, with a community of 180,000 people. You're also something of an influencer.

M.L.: Social media has a perfect place in our business. At the Factory, the goal is to sell directly to the final customer, removing all the middlemen who separate us from an idea and its recipient. With social media, I'm in direct contact with potential customers, but also with people who like and dislike what we do. It doesn't matter, because the idea is to show both what we're doing and what we could have done: it all really helps to define a space where everything feeds into everything else.

Article written by Désirée de Lamarzelle, featured in issue no° 8 of OniriQ magazine.