An unprecedented approach: to rehabilitate some of the decommissioned furniture ordered by the institution.
These pieces of furniture, copies of period models, no longer held any heritage value. Nicolas Aubagnac was approached by several artists to choose a piece, given free rein to transform it and give it a new life…
Nicolas Aubagnac set his sights on a simple chest of drawers that he wanted to be as "ordinary" as possible... Thus was born OBLIVION – which means "forgetfulness".
To embody the process of forgetting, the designer covered the piece of furniture with a shell of silver nails that seem to literally invade the chest of drawers like a colony of shimmering insects or a vibrant mold! He also sculpted new handles and a key to lock the drawers, casting bronze pebbles collected during his solitary walks. For Nicolas Aubagnac, the pebbles evoke those forgotten stones of the sea, which we tread upon without a second thought, which we may or may not even notice…
Each handle bears a letter from the name OBLIVION.
The chest of drawers is thus transfigured and becomes a unique piece questioning the increasingly porous boundaries between art and decorative art.
