In 1944, the year of its creation, Le Monde printed just over 100,000 copies a day. After 80 years, the volume of pages passed between rotary presses amounts to billions. This weekend, the Festival of the World is hosting two sustainable exhibitions that have made the newspaper their raw material.
“The world in the news” by Claire Renard and Jean-Sébastien Blanc, from Studio 5.5
80 lamps like 80 candles to blow out: with the “Le Monde à la Une” collection, the designers, co-founders of the 5.5 studio and pioneers of recycling, Claire Renard and Jean-Sébastien Blan, continue to impress with their circular design. Each unique luminaire is numbered from 1944 to 2023, like the years of the historical headlines that cover them. Like the scenography of the Le Monde festival square, which the design duo has been designing every year for 3 years, the lamps were hand-made, from waste recovered from the newspaper’s printing press in Tremblay, France. Their base is made of compressed newspaper pulp and recycled material from Tetra Pak (project partner), their coil feet have the exact dimensions of the Berlin format, so that they fit together perfectly. “The exercise was interesting, because it shows that design can be separated from aesthetics, explains Jean-Sébastien Blanc. We wanted to create objects that had meaning, that represented a year, that told the world and The world. » The two designers talk about “beautiful meaning”.
The significance of these objects is reflected in particular in the choice of the covers. Some dates stand out for their historical significance, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Others for the power of collective memory, such as the victory of the Blues in 1998. Others for what they tell of the history of the newspaper on the front page announcing the death of the painter Joan Miró in 1983, which shows the first colour photograph of the newspaper. Muriel Godeau, head of the documentation department of Le Monde, who was involved in the selection of the editions, admits that the choice was difficult. “We had a lot of doubts for 2001, she says. Obviously we think of the attack on the World Trade Center. But we ask ourselves: who would want to display such a souvenir in their living room? The choice then falls on the transition to the year 2001, the entry into the 21st century.
The 80 unique lighting models, on sale from 5 September during their exhibition at Paris Design Week, have already been sold. The collection will, however, remain on display in the Le Monde Gallery, with free admission until the end of the festival on Sunday 22 September.
Enhance “Le Monde”, the works of Yves François
For 30 years, visual artist Yves François has been making World the raw material for his works. The newspapers he collects are first subjected to all kinds of torments: he cuts them, tears them, folds them, compresses them or crushes them. Then he assembles them to create sculptures, paintings or even jewellery. A collection of lasting works that pays tribute to the importance of the press and its role in democracy.
Accustomed to living everyday life since he was a child, Yves François remembers a time when The world It was considered the greyest newspaper, without colours or photographs. The artist’s challenge was therefore to build objects that would allow the colours of the newspaper to be seen: “Playing with Le Monde to bring a world to light.” Yves François also plays with words. The collection of works named “The colors of the world” They are made from newspaper pages that he folded into sticks and projected onto the floor like the painting on canvas by the American Jackson Pollock. “What interests me is the spontaneous gesture,”defends Yves François.
Another work in the exhibition: Les Érectibles, also called “Monument to everyday life” form newspaper columns that he imagined in 1994. For these sculptures, he was inspired by the slow formation of stalactites that rise drop by drop, except that here “it is the accumulation of text that allows for verticality”, explains Yves François. After three decades, the paper has turned yellow, but the columns are still standing. “They have tough skin, the artist smiles. This shows that his texts also endure over time. »
