For this new exhibition, dedicated to mountain furniture, Maison Verrsen will offer from March 7 to April 7, a set of enameled pieces, never presented before by Charlotte Perriand, created for several residences in Les Arcs between 1969 and 1971.
In these simple interiors, where different types of wood are mixed - fir, larch and arrola - Perriand chooses bright, deep colours for the furniture, red, black, white and blue, using a process that was then unalterable: enamelling on metal.
As she wrote in a 1929 manifesto entitled "Wood or Metal?", "Metal is to interior design what cement was to architecture. It is a revolution."
The Saint-Maurice enamelworks in Val de Marne will handle Charlotte Perriand's orders. But in 1970, for financial reasons concerning the progress of the Arc 1600 project, Roger Godino asked her to stop using this furniture. The manufacturing cost was too high. It will be replaced by lacquered metal, lacquered wood or polyester.
Punctuated by unpublished prints by Gaston Karquel, photographer and great friend of Charlotte, we will also present other pieces, such as a unique bench for the apartment of a residence in Arc 1600, or a pedestal table for the golf hotel.
The “Enameled” exhibition will reveal a more confidential vision of Charlotte Perriand’s work for interior design in the mountains.