1. Where were you born and where are you from ?

Jennifer: I was born in eastern Paris and spent my childhood and adolescence there. I moved to Paris when I was 20 and have lived there ever since.

Malo: Paris, France

2. What is your first memory connected to the art world ?

Jennifer: I was eight years old, I was going to the conservatory to take drawing lessons. The first lesson had as subject a still life entirely composed of stuffed animals. And I found it great to draw stuffed animals.

Malo: My grandfather’s watercolors

3. Have you always worked in the art/design field ?

Jennifer: Since always yes. As soon as I knew that we could live on it!

Malo: Yes, since I was a student in Fine art School of Paris (ENSBA)

4. What led you to the design creation ?

Jennifer: I discovered the world of Design at the Boulle school. Previously, I was aware that any object was drawn but I became fully aware of the reflection around the object when I joined the school workshops. I was 16 and a new world was opening up to me.

Malo: The need for those creations to be brought to life

5. How would you describe your creative process and it influences ?

Jennifer: I am influenced by materials. They are the ones which will guide me towards the object that I am going to draw. I never start from a desire for objects, but rather from a fabric, a color, a shape that gives me the idea of the furniture or the lighting that I am going to create.

Malo: Instinctive, intuitive, directly inspired from the matter

6. Could you describe a typical day of your work ?

Jennifer: The days are quite different because our work as a designer is very versatile (between drawing, material research, design, production management in the workshop, etc…) but it’s important to me to always finish my day through creative research, in drawing or on matter.

Malo: Coffee, cigarette, reflexion about the ongoing projects and the future ones, the making it happen

7. Why did you choose the specific materials you work with ?

Jennifer: At the Boulle school, I was trained in metalwork, more particularly in brass. This material never left me. Metal is difficult to understand, it’s easier to get closer to wood or ceramics when you start working with your hands. I believe that this instinctive disenchantment pushed me to dig and discover metal. Today, we have no more secrets for each other, and each time I realize it, I find it very beautiful.

Malo: Brass offers an infinity of shapes and finishes. It’s both a structural and a noble material which plays delightfully with the light.

8. What are the technical particularities of your creations ?

Jennifer: I work on instinct and with respect for the material. It is the material that guides me. A forced material is a material that suffers. In my creations, it guides me, and I listen to it.

Malo: The finishes we create, the ability to adjust from what is not perfect, the mastery of randomness

9. What advices could you give to beginning artists who would like to create sculptural design works ?

Jennifer: Don’t be afraid, follow your instinct, Surprise us !

Malo: Patience, self denegation, self-confidence, originality are key to success. Do not let yourself be influenced

10. If your works had to belong to a design movement, in which one would you define it ?

Jennifer: We take part to this new wave of “maker” designer, our work is between design and contemporary art. We draw piece and we also produce it, this process is way different in the approach of the object drawing.

Malo: Art nouveau, art déco, surrealism, minimalism, post-modern, abstract… Designers makers, depends on pieces..

11. What designers have influenced you ?

Jennifer: Charlotte Perriand is for me a model. She influenced me in the simple gesture.
She was aware of the material AND the use of the object. One feels in his work a rare generosity and a real sociological approach. Her work is complete.
There is also Anni Albers who, in her creative process, taught me to build and deconstruct to find a good technique, the formula that will make sense.

Malo: The great architects

12. What contemporary designers do you appreciate ?

Jennifer: I love the work of Vincenzo De Cotiis. When I look at his creations, I can’t tell the difference between mirror and metal, metal and stone, one might think that everything is in one block and comes from another planet. His pieces are magic.

Malo: Jennifer Midoz, Laura Gonzales, Pierre Yovanovitch, Patricia Urquiola, Martino Gamper

13. What contemporary artists (in any kind of art) have you been inspired by ?

Jennifer: Eva Jospin’s work is extraordinary. Its forest and cathedral landscapes are breathtakingly beautiful, and its material is quite simply cardboard! His work is a mixture of disorder and total plenitude.

Malo: Olafur Eliasson, Guiseppe Penone, François Morellet, Myasaki, Peng Yu and Sun Yuan, Tony Brown, Michal Rovner, Sue Webster and Tim Noble.

14. If you had to summarize your creations in one word or sentence, what would it be ?

Jennifer: Impression.

Malo: Once there, you may see that it had to exist

15. Is there anything you would like to add ?

Jennifer: –

Malo: An Inappropriate joke, but it would be inappropriate

Proust Questionnaire with very short answers (one or a few words) :
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust. Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde, Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Jennifer: A workshop by the sea

Malo: A book, a hammock under the trees on a sunny day

2. What is your greatest fear?

Jennifer: Boredom

Malo: Loosing my hands

3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Jennifer: Impatience

Malo: My lack of sleep

4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Jennifer: Stupidity

Malo: Dishonesty

5. Which living person do you most admire?

Jennifer: Christiane Taubira

Malo: Jennifer Midoz

6. What is your greatest extravagance?

Jennifer: My imitation of the sound of a rag on a window

Malo: Writing a 130 Pages book about nothing

7. What is your current state of mind?

Jennifer: In research

Malo: Serene, yet tired but serene.

8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Jennifer: Patience

Malo: La Chasteté

9. What is the quality you most like in a man ?

Jennifer: Humility

Malo: Humility

10. What is the quality you most like in a woman ?

Jennifer: Pugnacity

Malo: Determination

11. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

Jennifer: However

Malo: Pfff….

12. Which talent would you most like to have?

Jennifer: How to draw a perfect circle

Malo: To speak every language

13. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Jennifer: My eyes color

Malo: The ability to learn every language

14. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Jennifer: Have read La Recherche

Malo: My life so far

15. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

Jennifer: Mona Lisa

Malo: A tree by the river

16. Where would you most like to live?

Jennifer: In the desert for the silence

Malo: I live in Paris…

17. What is your most treasured possession?

Jennifer: Creativity

Malo: A house I bought with some friends in the countryside

18. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Jennifer: Human stupidity

Malo: Despair

19. What is your favorite occupation?

Jennifer: Going to my Shrink

Malo: Thinking

20. What is your most marked characteristic?

Jennifer: I know all breeds of dogs

Malo: Patience

21. What do you most value in your friends?

Jennifer: Fidelity

Malo: Empathy

22. Who are your favorite writers?

Jennifer: Marcel Proust

Malo: Zweig, Maalouf, Artaud, Camus, Steinbeck, Ellul

23. Who is your hero of fiction?

Jennifer: Mrs Dalloway

Malo: Dedalus

24. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Jennifer: An amazon

Malo: Erasmus

25. Who are your heroes in real life?

Jennifer: My dog

Malo: The team I work with

26. What are your favorite names?

Jennifer: Tiger

Malo: Fiona

27. What is it that you most dislike?

Jennifer: Bad faith

Malo: The smell of somebody else’s vomit

28. What is your greatest regret?

Jennifer: I don’t have any

Malo: Not Being able to say goodbye to my grandmother

29. How would you like to die?

Jennifer: Sur scène

Malo: With the feeling of well accomplished job

30. What is your motto?

Jennifer: Non est mortale quod opto

Malo: « I have dreams »