ĚUROFÅBŔIQUË

A stage design to foster speech and debate

A system designed under the direction of Samuel Bianchini with Pernelle Poyet (furniture design, in
collaboration with Adrien Bonnerot, and spatial installation) and Lucile Vareilles (production). Project initially developed as part of a commission by the Cité du Design at EnsadLab – the research laboratory at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD – Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, PSL) – for the Assises du design 2019.
This project contributes to research into the new forms of “publicisation” in art and design research by
EnsadLab and the Arts & Science research chair of the École Polytechnique, EnsAD-PSL and the Fondation
Daniel et Nina Carasso. The furniture used for speeches that was made as part of this project has joined the collections of the Central national des arts plastiques.

How do we stage public speeches and debates relating to the development of art and design research, or
research/creation? How can we lend this public speaking a form that furthers it in an original way, one that resonates with the subject? How can we give the floor, yield the floor and take the floor in a public arena in such a way that provides a better understanding of why it is important to develop this form of research and creation?
Inspired by the improvised staging of political speeches – in particular the “Tennis Court Oath” – the proposed design attempts to offer a subtle response to an unsubtle question: why and how do we get up on a table, in the middle of a room, to speak? This “improper” use sets the tone for a set design based on the hybridisation of two objects with shifting functions and symbolism: a coffee table that becomes a stage, and a mobile lectern that can be easily passed around, and which can confer authority upon each of the speakers in turn, as well as the audience.

Standing simply on the floor, these objects form a horizontal and relatively well-distributed scenography.
Arranged in the middle of a single-level staging area, three islands are formed from three coffee tables around which themed groups can gather. When one of them stands on a table – it thereby becomes a stage – when one positions themselves behind the lectern offered to them, they can begin a speech. During these discussions with the audience, two mobile lecterns can move around the room to enable anyone who wishes to do so, to speak.

SCENOGRAPHY – FURNITURE
Halfway between Set Design and Furniture Design, the elements presented here aim to showcase the
movements and actions required for public and political speaking, in the form of an assembly. The use of
examples of institutional furniture designed for speeches and their ease of movement attempts to focus on the essential quality, and therefore efficiency, of this Heritage, of which the Institution is also the guardian.

The table-stages
A reference to the Tennis Court Oath, the action of climbing up onto a table or, more generally, a piece of
furniture is also and above all a response to an essential requirement when speaking in an assembly: to be visible to all, to signify that we intend to speak, to ask for everyone’s attention. Using a round-table format, with an apparently classic piece of furniture that does not theoretically lend itself to any particular attention, underscores the power of this key act. Through a physical action it can become a stage, its solid structures takes on a symbolic aspect that enables it to be read as the point of focus.

The mobile lecterns
The lectern is an object of great interest as it only exists and has meaning if it is used by a body. It has the
capacity to focus attention on a precise point in space, as well as cementing and sustaining the authority of the words spoken from it. Making this object mobile, distributing and multiplying it to give everyone access to it at a given moment, overturns its static origins that evoke the unilateral nature of a speech.
These lecterns are never active at the same time, forming a single visual whole that is constantly fluid and
moving.
To follow their movement through the space is to follow the movement of the speech.
Produced through a simple fold, this element is situated between object and space, both in terms of its
manufacture and its scale and relationship to the body. Initially unrecognisable without its classic form, it
becomes a lectern through the action of the person who stands behind it.
These lecterns are moved around by dedicated assistants who give someone the floor at the request of the moderator.

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• Ensad Paris

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