1979-2009 : 30 years of furniture design

VIA (Valorisation of innovation in furnishing) will celebrate its 30th anniversary in January 2010. For this special occasion, VIA and the Pompidou Centre will be presenting an exhibition “VIA Design 3.0”, which is to be held from 16th December 2009 to 1st February 2010.

As such, around forty prototypes will be exhibited, which together constitute pieces which are the most highly representative of French design applied to the living environment, created over the past thirty years. Of particular interest will be the chance to discover the very first creations from Philippe Starck, Martin Szekely, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Matali Crasset, Mathieu Lehanneur, François Azambourg, Philippe Rahm, etc… as well as some pieces from Gaetano Pesce and even Andrée Putman. In their time such projects were financed by the VIA within the scope of its annual Aid to Creation programme. In order to highlight the constancy of this approach, the young talent of today and tomorrow, recently revealed by VIA, will represent a large part of this exhibition. Videos (reports about the trends in creation, the importance of innovation, interviews, etc) will also be shown.

A selection of pieces from this unique collection of prototypes will be given to the Pompidou Centre, thus enriching a design collection which already comprises some 3,000 pieces.

This event is the consecration of VIA’s business policy over the past 30 years:
• Promoting creation and innovation in the sector of laying out the living environment;
• Revealing and supporting tomorrow’s talent;
• Favouring exchanges between designers, artistic directors, manufacturers and distributors;
• Detecting trends in the evolution of the living space over the medium and long term.

It is worth noting that the VIA was created in 1979 on the initiative of the CODIFAB (Committee for the development of French furniture industries), with the support of the Department of Trade and Industry.
It has been managed since 1995 by Gérard Laizé.



Publication

The VIA DESIGN 3.0 exhibition is also an opportunity for the publication of a book co-produced by the VIA
and the Pompidou Centre Editions. “VIA DESIGN 3.0” will be available at the end of November (224 pages).



Practical information

Press conference
On 15th September 2009

Centre Pompidou
75191 Paris cedex 04
telephone 00 33 (0)1 44 78 12 33
metro Hôtel de Ville, Rambuteau
Opening times
Exhibition open everyday except Tuesday from 1100 hours to 2100 hours
free entry

Exhibition curated by
Valérie Guillaume, curator at the National museum of modern art, architecture/design collection
Gérard Laizé, Executive Director of the VIA

With the support of