We no longer need to observe isolated objects as we've learned, but the relationships woven between objects already produced and those yet to be produced.

Could you give us a quick introduction to your background?

Pablo Bras: I'm a designer and I mène a so-called research practice, in the sense that owhere I don't necessarily produce functional objects, but that I'attempt to reformulate questions that I'estimate to bewrongly posed. I work through objects, images, spaces and texts mainly for public institutions and museumses. I'learned carpentry in Mexico, then trained at Boulle and the'ENSCI-Les Ateliers.

For this project, you have chosen to surround yourself with Juliette Gelli and Romain Guillet.

Pablo Bras: Juliette Gelli's practice focuses on concert scenography and artistic direction. She designs total and dynamic experiences, alongside'artists such as Flavien Berger, Oklou or Maud Geffray. At the moment, she's also working on the manière from which signs of d'interaction between matière and phenomenènes can emerge, In particular, this has enabled him to develop typography. As for Romain, he's a designer and scenographer. He founded the'espace Confort Mental, a'exhibition and production space that blurs the lines between so-called functional and non-functional objects. I'called on him for this project thinking of a work that'he delivered to the Centre Pompidou: the'fitting out of studio 13/16, which today'hosts workshops for young people. It'is a veryès composite project, to start with'standard and veryès little transformed elements. For me, it speaks of reversibilityé, combinations and d'assemblages, which were the main principles I wanted to inject into the'exhibition.

The thème of this edition, set by'astrophysicist Ersilia Vaudo, is "Unknown unknowns. An introduction to the mysteriesères". How did you decidé de l'interpretter?

Pablo Bras: Reading the note of'intention to'Ersilia Vaudo m'shared. There is a call for'humilité, to which I subscribe, in the'invitation to consideréremember that the'we don't know what the'we don't know. But on the'other hand, she believes that it'is through the'exploration of the distant that the'we can take the measure of this ignorance. Even if its aim remains to bring us face to face with the'unknown, there is still in this quest for the microscopic and the macroscopic a veryèscientific and, ultimately, technophile enterprise. For what that note implied was'that it'was through the development of tools, techniques of'observation, or prelèvements that we notice these unknown unknowns. Yet it seems to me that this ignorance is also manifest at much more trivial levels of our existences. How do objects emerge, how could they, or how should they be made? In what quantities? By whom or by what ? What'does this involve in terms of the use of physics and matières?

'exhibition you are presenting s'titles Situations, stratégies pour habiter l'instable, phenomenènes, evènements, coïincidences. What form does it take in situ?

Pablo Bras: It s'agit d'a large room whose floor has been covered with earth bricks, compressed and arranged in anorthogonal manner. These are bricks that we made in Milan and have quite a warm hue. In places, the bricks have been removed to build small architectures that host and display objects. Some are unique pièces, d'others from small series, d'still others come from'mass production. When you penetèthis space, all the senses are engaged, because some of the pièces on display are actually living things. There's kefir, cheese and a lemon tree. So much so that'a singulière inhabits this place.

All three of you are part of'a new generation of designers and your exhibition has been condesigned with a view to'a controlled environmental impact. Concrèdirectly, how did this influence the creation of your exhibition, the choice of objects, their provenance, etc.?

Pablo Bras: At the beginning of the'exhibition, I'had an exchange with Victor Petit, a philosopher who works a lot on political ecologies and who expressed the'idea that what the'we know least about, is often what is closest to us. Yet if the'we push this idea to the limit, which always goes unnoticed in an exhibition - whether'it be of'art or design - c'is the'exhibition space itself. Its walls, floor, furniture, TV, l'enclosure, paint, inks... in short the container. We're so absorbed by what the supports say, (the content) that'we no longer pay attention to the supports in themselves and forget that'they are, above all, objects. But they are not neutral in terms of provenance and manufacture. The objects selected therefore stem from this desire to focus our gaze on the objects that "are there".

Do you think it's possible to move away from the industrial dynamic that has long been dominant in design? What other major issues do you think designers are facing today'today?

Pablo Bras: Actually, I think that'it doesn't'there isn't really any reality behindèthe categories that are the'industry and - its theoretical complement - the'artisanship. One of the things thatthe exhibition seeks to demonstrate is that'there are only hybrid forms of production. Certain processess that the'one might think of as industrial sometimes hold to the'artisanat, or even DIY. And sometimes we tinker with from'so-called industrial elements, or we produce on an artisanal scale from from industrially-edited proc.... Wherewhere there is a difference, however, is'in production scales. There are still mass productions, one-off productions, and in between a whole nuance of differentscales. There are forms and uses that can only exist through mass, and d'others not. The'game for designers, it'is to be more flexible and to'admit that some things don't'need to be produced anymore, others need to be produced in small quantities and others, no doubt, in large quantities. Yet to do this, we must no longer observe isolated objects as we'have learned, but the relationships that are wovenbetween objects already produced and those yet to be produced. Observe that sometimes it is simply a matter of arranging the'existing.