Rising Talents

Yuma Kano’s Rust Harvest project explores the potential of rust as a cultivated finish on products. The work will be exhibited as part of Maison&Objet’s Rising Talent Awards, the January 2022 edition of which will focus on Japan (image: courtesy of Maison&Objet).

This March, the design world will train its eyes on Paris as Maison&Objet — the biennial furniture and interior fair that takes over the Paris Nord Villepinte exhibition centre — returns for its first winter edition since 2020. With almost 2,000 exhibitors, 20 talks and more than 15 large-scale installations, the event will see M&O extend back to its full scale after two tumultuous years.

Among the returning stands is the Rising Talent Awards, which showcases the best young and emerging practitioners from across design. “From the very beginning, Maison&Objet has aimed to detect and promote talents around the world,” says Franck Millot, the fair’s partnerships and special events director. “It is part of the show’s DNA.” Every edition of the fair selects and showcases six designers from a single country. “It is about taking a snapshot of what seems the most interesting to us internationally at this moment,” explains Millot. In recent years, rising stars from China, Lebanon and the USA have all been honoured receiving a stall to showcase their work at the fair.

Satomi Minoshima’s Skin Tote project examines the way in which skin colour impacts upon the way in which are perceived by society (image: courtesy of Maison&Objet).

Kodai Iwamoto’s oak KD desk for Fiel (image: courtesy of Maison&Objet).

Haruka Misawa’s Doshi project explores paper, trying to give a sense of agency to the material by encouraging unconventional treatments of it (image: courtesy of Maison&Objet).

In January 2020, to celebrate Maison&Objet's 25th anniversary, the spotlight fell upon France itself. One of the awardees was craft designer Wendy Andreu, who was nominated by Guillaume Houzé of Galeries Lafayette. Her work to date includes Regen, a double-sided waterproof fabric used to create bags, clothes and even chairs, along with architectural metal tables and shelves. “It was all amazing,” she recalls of her fair experience. “There was very good visibility, and lots of people were interested in the work. Afterwards, my telephone was ringing all the time. It was a rising part of my career.”

Maison&Objet has a strong track record for identifying new talents. Along with Andreu, recent winners of the Rising Talent Awards have included Sebastian Cox, Studio Swine, Julie Richoz and natacha.sacha. “Our award helps to highlight an emerging talent,” says Millot, “A few years later, their name sounds obvious when we talk about the talents that matter and the design scene in the country.”

This year, designers from Japan will be honoured, 11 years after the archipelago nation was last in the spotlight. The nominees were selected by a jury of six esteemed figures from the Japanese design scene, who each presented three potential recipients to the panel. A process of arbitration followed – chaired this year by the internationally acclaimed architect Kengo Kuma – to create a shortlist that awards distinctive talents while also aiming to capture the creative mood of the country right now.

Yuri Himuro’s Snip Snap project invites users to play with textiles, cutting them up with scissors before rearranging the designs to create new compositions (image: courtesy of Maison&Objet).

Baku Sakashita’s Suki lighting collection combines semi-translucent Japanese paper and thin stainless steel wire (image: courtesy of Maison&Objet).

Ceramicist Toru Kurokawa’s Tri-Fold sculpture. Kurokawa is the winner of the inaugural Rising Talent Awards Craft category (image: courtesy of Maison&Objet)

The winners of the 2021 Rising Talent Awards are an eclectic set with difficult-to-define oeuvres. Satomi Minoshima designs products inspired by human skin, while Yuma Kano has created a new material derived from cultivated rust. Kodai Iwamoto’s designs are alchemical, transforming base elements such as metal tubes into elegant objects, while Yuri Himuro weaves textiles with brilliant patterns – her Snip Snap collection can be cut with scissors to create new configurations. And both Haruka Misawa and Baku Sakashita explore the qualities of paper, a substance with a prominent place in Japanese culture, albeit in very different ways. “Although each designer has their own specific field of expertise,” writes Kuma, “we have noted that they have all embraced a multidisciplinary approach to design.”

The March iteration of Maison&Objet will also see the addition of a new category for the awards scheme. Initiated in collaboration with the Ateliers d'Art de France, the Rising Talent Awards Craft category will celebrate a single artist working with craft techniques. It seems apposite that this scheme begins in a year dedicated to Japan, a country so devoted to craft that the government operates a scheme in which up to 116 artisans may be appointed as National Living Treasures. The inaugural winner of the new Rising Talent award is ceramicist Toru Kurokawa, whose sculptural objects are influenced by mathematical visualisations such as the Klein bottle and the Möbius Strip, creating knotty, bewilderingly complex new forms.

The new prize demonstrates how Maison&Objet is embracing a waxing tide in design: the  renaissance of handicraft, something which has only grown in this era of physical distancing and screen-bound interaction. “It seemed natural to us, to add a special mention in this category,” says Millot, “In recent years we have seen these two disciplines, design and craftsmanship, come closer and even come together in the work of designers and makers.” As some of the environmental and social costs of certain modern production processes become increasingly clear, this return to traditional processes is a welcome one.

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Words Joe Lloyd

Maison&Objet has been rescheduled and will take place in Paris from 24-28 March 2022.

This article was made for Maison&Objet.