Fair report

Paris has been host to a lot of action over the last few months: Fashion Week, the World Rugby Cup, and a certain creepy crawly who shall not be named among them. During the second and third weeks of October, however, a flurry of design people — our people — popped into town for a fair circuit punctuated by the inaugural Paris edition from Design Miami/ as well as Paris+ par Art Basel and two exciting new kids on the block: CONTRIBUTIONS and THEMA.
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Contributions

A new indie darling on the scene, Contributions was founded by consultant and PR whiz Anna Caradeuc, in conjunction with the French creative agency, Bildung. Envisioned as an “idiosyncratic offering,” Contributions — which will be an itinerant project — chose Paris for its debut, highlighting the work of twenty emerging and established voices from around the world with site-specific installations as well as panels. Highlights included: a mixed materials mash-up from Brussels-based gallery MANIERA and Paris-based Galerie Desprez-Bréhéret, which placed contemporary pieces from Maniera — like an aluminum lamp by Anne Holtrop or a terracotta coffee table by Bernard Dubois — in conversation with historical pieces from the Parisian gallery, including a polished brass commode by Gabriella Crespi; a collaborative installation in a legendary workshop between Georgian textile artist Mariana Chkonia and French gallery SINOPLE; a poetic chair from Salem Charabi; a SIZED-curated presentation of new aluminum and zinc works by Studio HAOS; Thomas Hutton’s stone lamp sculpture install timed to the position of the sun; a collection of fire-resistant cork oak furniture by Noe Duchaufour Lawrence; and a Sophie Lou Jacobsen x Zain Ali x Conie Vallese show, which was as lovely and romantic as one might hope.