Françoise Guichon, curator at the Musée National d’Art Moderne, interviews Martin Szekely, September 2011

ne plus dessiner (draw no more), the title of an exhibition of Martin Szekely’s work at the Pompidou Centre, is borrowed from a declaration that verges on the provocative. The exhibition features some twenty items of furniture and a similar number of industrial designs produced after Szekely declared this new stance in 1996. His work imposes itself on the viewer’s gaze: it seems to put paid to all commentary, refusing to appeal to our imagination, our taste for novelty, or even our willingness to let ourselves be seduced.

Françoise Guichon – What can you tell us about the slight distancing effect that some might see as coolness?

Martin Szekely – “Cooling down” could be a useful watchword in these days of overheating, where everything seems to want, and to need, to appeal to emotions, sensations, and affects. On the contrary, is there no expanse of silence, no space to retreat into? The humble, everyday nature of furniture makes it ideal to take on this role. That is the role that I evoke: I foreground the origin of pieces of furniture, their definition, implementation, and final destination. Analysing such data is a large part of what I do. The objects and the items of furniture combine multiple intentions. Could we not just stick with their raison d’être, their use, first and foremost, without necessarily highlighting the designer’s brilliance and sensitivity, the craftsman’s virtuoso skill, the technological achievement, and the supremacy of the brand? The result would be an object stripped of all superfluity, present in its own right. It could then give rise to a multiplicity of uses.

FG – You almost never use the word “design”. Why do you shy away from it?

MSz – The word itself is rich in meanings: signs, drawings, projects. But on the other hand, its meaning in common usage is narrow and connoted: it usually evokes a positivist attitude aiming for a “better world”. I think of my work as essentially taking stock of the current state of the world in one particular domain – uses, materials, and structures, on the scale of furniture. Doing what is possible on the day and in the place where you are working.

FG – The exhibition is being held in a museum, alongside contemporary art collections. How do you see such works and how do you place your work in this context?

MSz – Apart from my teenage years when I deliberately turned my back on art, my life has been shaped by contact with artworks and artists, among other things. These days, my furniture and my objects have a place among works of art belonging to collectors who appropriate my work for everyday use. As Pierre Staudenmeyer said, “Furniture occupies a humble space in the sphere of art because it belongs implacably to functionality – and yet, that very fact gives them a form of power that works of art do not share”