If anyone can turn Paris upside down and inside out, it’s world-renowned designer Philippe Starck. Given carte blanche by the Carnavalet History of Paris museum, Starck revisits the City of Light with a bold and bizarre exhibition “Paris is pataphysical”.
Starck was born and bred in Paris. Legend has it that he once played truant to get out of school and took to hiding in the Carnavalet museum where he began sketching. Paris was and still is his playground; a place of concrete reality offering amazing escapism and never-ending inspiration.
Like a kind of mad hatter of the modern age, Starck guides the visitor through a topsy turvy version of Paris inside the Musée Carnavalet. It is both real and surreal, giving pride of place to his own designs, and also the mischievous, eccentric inventions of his fellow pataphysical scientists.
It’s not hard to see why Starck is drawn to ‘pataphysics', described as the "science of imaginary solutions". The "philosophy" invented by French writer Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) is marking its 150th anniversary this year.
Pataphysics has been taken very seriously by its adherents over the years. Among them were Pablo Picasso, Raymond Quéneau, Boris Vian, Max Ernst and Jean Ionesco. Starck himself holds the prestigious title of “Regent” of the College of Pataphysics since 2021.
“Pataphysics has a taste for beauty and for the impossible made possible,” Starck said in an interview in March, prior to the opening of this exhibition.
“This science is in the image of life, allowing serious things to be taken lightly and light things seriously.”
From real to surreal and everywhere in between, Starck invites the visitor to step into the part of his brain that never sleeps and take a trip down memory lane.
The silvery spinning chairs at Parc de la Villette in the north-east of Paris? The photobooths seen in nearly every French train station and shopping mall? The clock with only eight numbers? All stamped Starck. But there’s much more.
Not only does Philippe Starck enjoy working in the public eye, he has also designed spaces the public never sees, like the bedroom for first lady Danielle Mitterrand in the Elysée Palace in 1983. Suffice to say, the result gave her nightmares!
"Subversive, ethical, ecological, political, humorous … this is how I see my duty as a designer,” Starck has said of his work, which has spanned everything from the Bains-Douches nightclub, the Eurostar Terminal at Gare du Nord, the Navigo train pass and most recently the TOO Hôtel and restaurant in the 13th district of Paris.
The Carnavalet musuem’s scientific production coordinator, Hélène Ducaté told RFI that working with Starck, as artistic director of the exhibition, was at times very intense.
“Starck has an eye for all the details, and has a crazy energy, but he always works with a sense of humour”.
One of the key aspects of the exhibition she points out, is an audio guide, which is Starck’s way of personalising the visit, with cheeky anecdotes for each themed room.
“He’s an excellent storyteller, very good at talking about his creations and what he says really adds to the visit. It’s interesting content, very important, full of humour, it’s quite a funny way to visit the exhibition. I hope people will have a good laughg,” Ducaté says.
After all, as Starck sums it up “Paris is just a vast stage set for an opera. And all of this is, obviously, a fantasy”.
"Philippe Starck: Paris is Pataphysical" runs until 27 August 2023 at the Musée Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris
