(Paris) From the 1980s, which propelled him to the rank of international star of design and architecture, Philippe Starck, an ultra-prolific visionary creator, claims to have no memories, too busy “doing”.
Posted at 11:07 a.m.
At 73, he prefers to talk about his current events, in a rare filmed interview granted to AFP: “an average of 250 projects at the same time” including the production of green hydrogen or the development of a future camp. NASA astronaut training in the United States.
” I do not have the software eras and dates”, he launches, provocatively, questioned about this period during a brief visit to Paris, at the Museum of Decorative Arts, host of an exhibition dedicated to these years of artistic effervescence. and cultural. He is the star, alongside couturier Jean-Paul Gauthier and another great unclassifiable designer, Jean-Paul Goude.
The 80s, “for me, it was like being abandoned in an Amazon jungle with nothing to eat, wild animals everywhere, a rusty machete, essentially multi-directional adventure. I just did what I could. And when we do what we can, we don’t remember what is happening elsewhere,” he dares, almost surprised to see “so many things! exhibited.
Slender, salt-and-pepper hair and beard cut short, the French designer is dressed in a black jacket signed Agnès B over a hoodie and gray pants, regrets the state of his skin “following the cessation of alcohol”, arrives late from Portugal, where he has taken up residence, for a series of business meetings before granting himself “a holiday in Iceland”, a rare thing.
The public, intrigued, gathered around him, kept at a distance by a discreet security cordon. He seems to savor this dive into reality, playing on his notoriety and courteously challenging his interlocutor to get to “the essentials”.
“Democratize”
The 1980s were a turning point in the career of this less diligent former student of the École Nissim de Camondo in Paris, marking the beginning of a meteoric rise that enabled him to “democratize design: improve quality while striving to make it accessible to as many people as possible”.
“To democratize, it is a permanent work which was clearly won with American collections, we managed to remove two zeros (on the price). At the time, sitting in the design was at least 20,000 euros ($27,000) today and that wasn’t right. Today it’s 700 euros ($950), not bad,” he comments.
In 1983, François Mitterrand called him to redecorate apartments at the Élysée. He will say nothing more, paying just tribute to “François and Danièle Mitterrand, extraordinary people”.
Citrus squeezer, furniture, electric bicycle, individual wind turbine, hotels, restaurants, control tower, naval and space engineering: his protean work has spread all over the world, marked by an early ecological awareness and a passion for “everything relating to the future life”.
“It’s just the continuation of an exploration. The older I get and the better I do, the more interesting my partners are. I have an organic process that, despite appearances, is a permanent rejuvenation,” he jokes, referring to the fictional character in David Fincher’s film, Benjamin Button, a man born old and getting younger.
Space tourism, NASA
Pushing back the limits, he collaborates with the American company Axiom Space on the modular habitat of its commercial space station, connected to the ISS, the international space station.
He is also working on the future “NASA training camp” for astronauts, a project developed with Orbite, “first space training company”, which will be located in the United States.
“It is a very beautiful image of our necessary vital change, that is to say a multidirectional thought. Because today we are still fixed vertically, but that’s clearly over so I’m taking care of it boldly, “he comments… Before leaving, because people have been waiting for him “for 30 minutes for a “kick-off meeting” (launch meeting, Editor’s note) on the European distribution of hydrogen”, an area in which he also works.