Maison&Objet: The Energy of Emotion with Masquespacio
Disegno Podcasts
Christophe Penasse, co-founder of Masquespacio, discusses his studio's new role as ambassadors for the Maison&Objet trade fair. He explores
Key takeaways
- Masquespectio is designing the visual identity and installations for Maison&Objet's 'Pulse in Motion' edition.
- The studio took a six-month sabbatical to reset after experiencing burnout from continuous project cycles.
Main topics
- Maison&Objet Ambassadorship
- Design Burnout and Sabbaticals
Notable quotes
We want to make the spaces much more human.
Conclusion
The episode illustrates how designers can navigate industry pressures
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) This September, Paris' Maison & Objet trade fair returns with Pulse in Motion, an edition of the fair aimed at capturing the need for energy and human connection to drive contemporary design if it is to meet the challenges of life today. To mark this edition, the fair has appointed Masca Spacio, the Valencia-based interior design studio of Ana Milena Hernandez and Christophe Parnasse, as ambassadors for Maison & Objet. Tasked with designing the visual identity for the next edition of the fair, as well as delivering two installations, one to form a part of the fair itself, the other within the city of Paris to connect Maison to the wider Paris Design Week, Hernandez and Panasse are the figures responsible for setting the rhythm of the pulse that will define this year's edition. Founded in 2010, Masca Spazio has become known for its bold use of scenography, colour and material detail, creating spaces that are rich in visual references and nods to design history. Whether the postmodernism of the Memphis Collective, the futurism of pop, elegant art deco or contemporary craft, the studio creates interiors that marry comfort with fantasy and atmosphere with material intelligence. Drawing on the studio's multicultural heritage, Hernandez is Colombian, Pernas Belgian, Masa's Basio's work is often focused on cross-cultural exchange, as well as the romance and enriching quality of travel. The studio has created projects around the world, as well as recently launching Mas Creations, a lifestyle brand for the studio's furniture and ceramic designs. Ahead of September, when Mascaspaccio's work on Maison Non-Objet will be revealed to the public, I'm delighted to be joined today by Christophe Panasse for a conversation about both the fair and the practice's wider work. Welcome to the podcast. Speaker 1 (1:55) Thank you. Thank you for inviting me, Oli. I love the introduction, honestly. I think I'm going to copy it. Speaker 2 (2:02) Christophe, it's a great honour to have this role with Maison & Objet. So many amazing designers of every different kind have held this role in the past. What was your first reaction when you and Anna were invited to take this on? Speaker 1 (2:17) We couldn't believe it, honestly, because the truth is that we received first a message on Instagram. It was like... We didn't know exactly what it was about, but it felt like what I was thinking and I was, no, it's not possible. But yeah, the invitation as ambassadors for us, it was like a great opportunity, a great honor for us, you know, to represent such an important fair event in the design world in Europe and all around the world, because it's one of the most important design fairs in the world. Speaker 2 (2:51) Yeah, you have people coming from all over. This is, you know, it's huge and very important for Europe, but you have visitors from the Americas, from Asia, Australia. It's very international. Totally. Speaker 1 (3:03) What happens is that it came just in a moment that we are going through a big change in our studio. And honestly, we were rejecting projects the whole time because we felt that we needed to restructure the studio after sabbatical, find another direction. find another way of working. And then this opportunity arrived just in that moment. So it gives us the opportunity to showcase the, I would say the new Masca Spacio, but the people that will see the spaces we are designing and what we're representing at the end will say, yes, this is Masca Spacio, but it's in another way. Speaker 2 (3:38) Yeah. You mentioned the sabbatical and this is a really interesting thing you did because I think within design and culture, large, we kind of valorise work, you know, people are busy and that's seen as a good thing. I think you and Anna took a really interesting decision of you were taking a year off, right? You were going travelling, I think you went to Bali and kind of resetting and taking it. How did you take that decision? Why did it feel so important to you? Speaker 1 (4:06) Actually, it was six months. It was not a year. I would have loved it to be. Maybe I will take the six months in a few years. So that's my intention. But the The truth is that we felt like a bit of a burnout. I'm not going to say I don't know if we already had a burnout or we were going to burnout, but it felt the last years that it was like just doing projects to do projects one more and one another and another and more and more. We felt. less connected to what we are doing. We were thinking and we started thinking, are we still enjoying? Are we still like, you know, when we create a project, it's a baby for us. So do we still feel them like our babies or are we just working as a business? So I'm very grateful about the opportunities with my clients, of course, but it's a personal process you go through. And for us, the studio, it's directly. related to our to our personal life and our and how we feel personally so for us it was like what do we should we continue you know we we asked ourselves should we continue like this we need to work of course so we we are not rich so we need to work and we are happy to work and we are very passionate but the truth was we felt that we needed to stop so we needed to stop and to think and to think first uh about ourself because what happens like you said with projects without With studios, I think in general, when you have a business, it's one project after the other. So you don't have time to stop. And in our world, everything goes very fast. So it's faster and faster and faster. Now with AI, it's going even faster. So on the return, it's not simple to adapt, but it's the truth that we said we need to take a break. think about ourselves. Anna took us the opportunity to learn a bit of English, but it was like doing things that we really want to do. So just reading, looking at the birds, going on an adventure. So trying to progress with our inner peace and our feeling, our own feeling at the end. Speaker 2 (6:07) I think travel, this is a very obvious example of it, but travel in general is quite important to your design work, isn't it? I mean, the studio is set up with this kind of cross-cultural exchange between you and Anna, but also other members in the studio. And your references are quite eclectic too. You're drawing on things from all over. Tell me why travel feels so vital to your design because, you know, there are people who love travel but who it's not feeding into their work, whereas for you it really seems that it is. Speaker 1 (6:38) It's finding inspiration in other sites but finding inspiration in other parts of the world. It's not