Galerie En Attendant les Barbares

Since ancient Egypt, gold has been a mythic feature of haute decorative art—and at the moment it’s once again an inventor’s refuge. The Galerie En Attendant Les Barbares has given eight designers carte blanche to imagine new-look gilded or gold-accented furniture and accessories in an exhibition called Or(s), Oct 6–Dec 15. Jean-Philippe Gleizes’s surprising new chair, entirely covered in yellow-gold leaf, resembles a medieval knight’s helmet. Elizabeth Garouste’s surreal “eye” mirror is framed in gilded wood, with a gold pupil slightly off-center. Christian Ghion’s captivating white-gold-leafed gueridon has an apple-shaped base, while Eric Jourdan’s abstract, rectangular gueridon is made of thin, folded steel panels partly covered in white gold leaf. Eric Robin’s whimsical sculpted iron standing lamp has birdlike feet in black and an integrated gold-leafed tray. By special permission of the former design duo Garouste and Bonetti, who no longer work as a team, the show also includes their never-before-produced 1998 mahogany desk with black wrought-iron and white gold accents. “Like the image of haute couture, I wanted the Or(s) exhibition to express a certain quest for perfection and rarity,” says gallery owner Agnès Standish-Kentish.

Eric Robin's sculpted iron lamp

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Originally published in the September 2011 issue of France Today