The Orsay Museum, which was prevented from throwing soup on the painting, is complaining
PARIS: Philippe Starck, the ultra-prolific visionary creator from the 1980s that catapulted him to international design and architecture stardom, claims he has no memory and is too busy “working”.
At 73, he prefers to talk about his news in a rare taped interview with AFP: “an average of 250 projects at the same time,” including green hydrogen production or future camp development. NASA astronaut training United States.
“I don’t have a program for periods and dates,” he says wryly when asked about the period during a brief visit to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. cultural advancement. He stars alongside couturier Jean-Paul Gauthier and another great unclassifiable designer, Jean-Paul Goude.
The 80s, “For me, it was like being abandoned in the Amazon jungle with nothing to eat, wild animals everywhere, a rusty machete, essentially no versatile adventure. I just did what I could. And when you’re doing your best, you don’t remember what’s going on elsewhere,” he said, “a lot of things!” he dares, almost surprised to see. was exhibited.
The French designer, with thin, salty hair and beard cropped short, wearing a black jacket by Agnès B over a hoodie and gray pants, “regrets the state of his skin after quitting alcohol,” arrives late from Portugal. , where he took up residence, before agreeing to an “Iceland vacation” for a series of business meetings, a rarity.
The curious public gathered around him, kept at bay by a careful security cordon. It seems that he enjoys this dive into reality, plays on his fame and politely challenges his interlocutor to get to the “basics”.
– “Be democratic” –
The 1980s marked a turning point in the career of the not-so-hardworking former student of Ecole Nissim de Camondo in Paris, marking the beginning of a meteoric rise that allowed him to “democratize design: improve quality. as many people as possible.”
“To democratize it’s a permanent business that’s obviously won with American collections, we’ve been able to remove two zeros (to the price). At that time, sitting on the design was at least 20,000 current euros, which was not right. Today it is 700 euros, not bad, “he said.
In 1983, François Mitterrand called on him to redecorate the apartments on the Elysée. He won’t say anything more, just paying tribute to “Francois and Daniel Mitterrand, extraordinary people.”
Citrus squeezer, furniture, electric bicycle, individual wind turbines, hotels, restaurants, control tower, marine and space engineering: his main work spans all eras.
a world imbued with an early environmental awareness and a passion for “everything to do with future life”.
“This is just a continuation of exploration. The older and better I get, the more interesting my partners are. I have an organic process of constant rejuvenation, even though it seems outward,” he jokingly refers to the fictional character of David Fincher’s film, Benjamin Button, who was born old and becomes young.
– Space tourism, NASA –
Pushing back the constraints, it is partnering with America’s Axiom Space on a commercial space station modular habitat attached to the International Space Station (ISS).
It is also working on a future “Nasa boot camp” for astronauts, a project developed in conjunction with Orbite, the “first space training company” to be based in the United States.
“This is a very beautiful image of our necessary life change, that is, our multidirectional thinking. Because today we’re still vertically stabilized, but it’s obviously over, so I’m taking it easy,” he comments… Before leaving, because people were waiting for him “for 30 minutes + for the kick-off meeting + ( kick-off meeting, editor’s note ) on the European distribution of hydrogen”, the field in which he also works.
