Five questions with
Clémence Krzentowski
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Clémence Krzentowski is a French gallerist and co-founder of the collectible design mecca Galerie kreo. She met Marie in the early 2000s at a mutual friend’s wedding party in Paris. After dancing together all night, they became friends. Our team visited Clémence at the apartment she shares with her husband and business partner, Didier Krzentowski, in the XVI arrondissement. Theirs is a beautifully eclectic house filled with unique art and furniture from the most outstanding contemporary designers. In the living room, a sculptural concrete bench by Virgil Abloh stands over a carpet artwork by Latifa Echakhch, alongside a riveted metal piece by Marc Newson, and a comfy custom sofa designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec steals the scene. The cherry on the cake: a view over the Tour Eiffel.
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Interview Caterina Capelli
Photos Alessandro Trevisan
Styling Erica Toffanin
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You and your husband Didier are both collectors. What’s the psychology behind collecting?
To be honest, my husband is more [of a collector] than I am. For him, it’s really an essential, vital need. He's been a collector since he was 7. He collects contemporary art and was one of the first people really interested in conceptual photography, when nobody cared yet, in the late ‘80s. To me, collecting is more of a pleasure. I love it and am so happy that Didier and I have this in common.
For both, I think collecting comes from a kind of neurotic attitude. But in a good way! It’s very mental, like having a puzzle in your mind and trying to complete it. You start from the frame, and then you add, and add, and add, and at the end, there’s “the dream.” It’s a never-ending puzzle, and you dream of getting closer to the vision, completing and perfecting it. But it isn’t anything planned or scheduled in your mind. It’s an instinctive process driven by gut feelings and intuition.
In our work, we often question the role of luxury in today’s society. What’s your opinion on the matter?
Time, intention, and scarcity are forms of luxury. But balance is key. On the one hand, you have mass production, developing products for everyone. That’s important, and that’s beautiful, and it should be treated in the best way possible. On the other hand, sometimes it’s wonderful to do things that are not meant to satisfy any needs. Something totally free for the sake of experimentation. To achieve this [type of luxury] to be made, I would involve wonderful people who are really committed to creating something new and exceptional. But the way you produce a piece is also very important. To me, luxury is a combination of excellent vision and excellent making. It also has to do with time. A dear friend of Marie’s, and mine too, Azzedine Alaïa, always said that our relation to time [materializes] in beautiful objects, whether it's fashion, glasses, or furniture.
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Your Galerie kreo is among the most relevant outposts in collectible design. What do you do exactly, and how did you get there?
Like my husband, I was always drawn to creativity, design, and photography… to art in every sense. But we are not artists. [Our job consists of] recognizing talented people, celebrating them, and also feeling them on a human, creative level. The process is different every time. Some designers are obsessed with colors, some with shapes, others with materials, or social issues… Our gallery is also involved in production, so there’s a lot of dialogue in our business. We talk with the designers every day and develop the projects together.
We didn’t think about all this when we started. The idea came naturally when we were picking the pieces to furnish our home. Even though there are beautiful pieces that are mass-produced – like Le Corbusier’s designs, for example – we wanted to have something more special that would dialogue with the art [we collect]. We already had an agency working on industrial projects, and since most designers were also great artists looking to make more personal projects, we thought the gallery would be the right place to give them this opportunity. We opened it in 1999.
Is the distinction between design and art blurring away?
Not for me. At the gallery, we only produce limited edition pieces. It’s what we’ve been doing since the beginning. It’s collectible in the sense that, first of all, you never have many pieces. It’s the object’s nature – for example, the way it’s produced – that leads you to a limited edition. So it’s true that [furniture at Galerie kreo] has the status of pieces of art. At the same time, it’s also true that 95% of our designs are functional. They’re meant to be used. The “collectible design” that you can’t use, for me, isn’t design. And it’s not art, either. Because otherwise, it’s a sculpture. You don’t expect any use from a work of art. But design needs to be functional. Take this photograph, for example; I have it here, and it’s complete. I don’t interact with it. But I have this sofa [the Bouroullec one] - I touch it, I lay on it, I sleep on it – it’s a scenario of my everyday life.
Despite being expressions of traditional craftsmanship, Laguna~B glasses have always been considered “contemporary.” What makes an object contemporary?
It’s not a copy of the past. Nothing is totally new, actually, because of the relationship with history, but newness is important. In the case of Marie, the combinations of colors and murrine she created for the Goto were very special. The Goto’s shape was unusual, too, because it assumed you had to drink wine or champagne from a glass without legs. Laguna~B is contemporary, not just in its designs but in the way that you use them. You feel more relaxed and at ease in using those glasses however you want.
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Discover Clémence's selection
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