Présent >< Futur, new installment

After hosting the 13th Saint-Étienne International Design Biennial, the Cité du Design is inaugurating two new exhibitions at La Platine this autumn, including the fourth instalment of its Présent >< Future cycle.

Launched in 2023, this programme showcases the diversity of contemporary design practices through a cycle of monographic exhibitions and an editorial collection. ‘Beyond the objects on display, the aim here is to highlight creative processes that reflect the richness and uniqueness expressed by a new generation of designers’, explains Laurence Salmon, Director of Cultural and Artistic Development. This approach also aims to ‘bring about a more sensitive view of the world’, echoing the societal transformations currently underway.

Each designer is invited to conceive their exhibition and define the spatial layout of their research so that it conveys a particular style and commitment. Because design is at the junction of two worlds, culture and business, the Présent >< Future cycle also allows each guest designer to engage in dialogue with an SME in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, in order to nurture their industrial know-how through experimentation conducted in situ.

After Laureline Galliot, Guillaume Bloget and the duo dach&zephir, it is now the turn of designer David Dubois to take centre stage. The en mouvement exhibition, presented in Saint-Étienne from 7 November 2025 to 1 March 2026, will, like the previous ones, be accompanied by a book dedicated to the guest designer of the Présent >< Future cycle.

An independent and transdisciplinary designer, David Dubois is at the crossroads of practices that nurture links with design, contemporary art, graphic design, fashion, dance… He combines the creation of objects, fittings, scenography and installations with the scripting of exhibitions. With a wealth of collaborations with the Villa Noailles, Mudam in Luxembourg, the Palais de Tokyo, the Villa Arson and the Kadist Art Foundation, in 2006 the designer also joined the Kreo gallery to develop limited edition projects and spatial installations (such as the Christian Lacroix concept stores in New York and Las Vegas, etc.) and more industrial objects (Kronenbourg, Lalique, etc.).

For his exhibition at the Cité du Design, the scenographic device proposed is that of a theatre of objects, a set observed head-on and from a distance by the spectators. Visitors are invited to sit down and enjoy an immersive, contemplative experience, allowing them to spend a long time looking at the pieces.

As part of this exhibition, David Dubois also collaborated with the D’Ennery clothing workshop, which specialises in quilting. In order to take this technique beyond its usual use, experiments were conducted to appreciate the qualities of transparency and diffusion of quilted fabric to create the Aka Nizaki light fixture. This unique piece combines craftsmanship with industrial production, drawing inspiration from Japanese culture and aesthetics.•

— The book, David Dubois, en mouvement – n°04, associated with this fourth exhibition in the Présent >< Future cycle, will be available from November 2025.

photos : Mobile No1, David Dubois, 2015 © David Dubois • Fictional projects, David Dubois, 2015 © David Dubois • Protected vase No11, David Dubois, 2018 © David Dubois