Architectural drawing is conventionally thought of as a means to reach a concrete goal, that is the construction of the idea. How come, according to you, that certain visualizations acquired that status of art product in themselves?
Sometimes, an idea is more important than the result you reach in the end of an architectural process. In that sense, the sketches show more, express something that is more subtle or more visionary. The architectural drawing, collage, photomontage, or all kind of architectural working material are the expression of this idea this is what brings architecture to life. We want to present this body of work as art products, as we believe with Desplans that idea and process should be shown and explained.
How did Desplans start? Please tell us about your background.
We are three founders: Guillaume Dubois, Albane Cartier-Bresson and Jérôme Malpel. Guillaume is an engineer and architect, with several years of working experience in France and Sweden. Albane has a background in the luxury industry. Guillaume and Albane are in charge of the office in Paris. Jérôme is an architect and curator of architecture. He is currently based in Stockholm. We have always been fascinated by architectural production in the broadest sense. Our mission is to bring architecture closer and more accessible to the general public.
About the exhibition of digital drawings, how do they change the approach to art market?
We started our project by the simple observation that digital drawings are too often away from the public, and stay stored in hard-drives and data bases. They can be printed once for a competition, or shown within the office walls, but most of the time people only see this work on a website or a blog. Our bias is to create a structure for this type of work to give it some value. A little bit like editing photographies, we are presenting digital material on paper, in limited edition, with fine arts printing techniques. We want to present nice objects to the public, framed and nicely packed. Our approach to the art market is to providing high quality prints, but with affordable prices (our prices go from 70 to 855€) to democratize the act of collecting architecture.
What type of collaborations have you had with architects?
We are aiming to create a real relationship with the architects we are working with. For some of them, the collaboration we built together is beyond our expectation. We have been for example offered to do an exhibition in the studio where Atelier Gramme is working, so we could be even more close to the architectural process, by opening up an office for the public to show some drawings, and in that case the furniture they are designing. That show was a great success! The people coming were really happy to discover a new way of exhibition and see how actually architects work, and the architects were glad to get a wider audience discovering what they are doing. We like to create a strong relationship with the architects, and we encourage them to give their feedback, so we can work together to present works that we both care about. The idea is to be engaged in a long-term partnership, where one can help the other and carry the same values.
How do you figure Desplans in the future?
We are already based in two countries and we wish to further develop Desplans internationally. Our public inhabits the world and everywhere the public has a great desire for architecture of good quality. Also, we aim to work and present architects from different country and different culture, with different practices and ways of representation.