Willie Morlon and his revolutionary Placoplatre marquetry, topped on the Toulon Design Parade

“My mission has no future. ” That is, in fact, a sentence that will probably be on the jury Toulon Design Parade within the chair, for this 2024 version, by inside architect and designer Marion Mailaender. As a result of Willie Morlon, 31 years outdated, who graduated from the Royal Academy of High-quality Arts in Brussels, wished, above all, to suggest a form of manifesto by taking part on this competitors with Placo Studiolo, a room embodying a Mediterranean palace, adorned from ground to ceiling in Placoplatre reworked as marquetry. And he by no means noticed his alternative of fabric as everlasting.

“As a part of my artwork observe, I shortly turned to Placo. Because the finish of the First World Conflict and with the reconstruction, it has had a robust affect on the way in which we design inside areas. This plaster The truth is, it isn’t enclosed between two cardboard plates to be displayed and final for hundreds of years. It’s the layers and the paint that covers it that reinforces it, explaining the person who, earlier than changing into a visible artist, accomplished a legislation diploma. I made a sculpture from Placo and once I heard concerning the Toulon Design Parade, I advised myself that, with this Placo, I might make the connection between artwork and structure. So I expanded my method to a spatial and immersive method with 4 partitions, a ceiling, a ground. It was a possibility to broaden my scope of creation and exploration. »

With a ardour for adornment, the person who grew up in his mother and father’ retailer developed as a second-hand salesman – he nonetheless works there – and nurtured himself with magnificence whereas enriching himself with information of data, a novel craft motion utilizing poor materials. . “In line with their traits, Placoplatre boards are completely different colours, he continues. Grey is reserved for regular Placo, inexperienced signifies the water resistant boards which can be used as such in loos, pink is a fire-resistant colour and blue for acoustic. I selected to not use these plates for his or her specs however for his or her aesthetic qualities. I reduce out items of colour that I inserted into others. Even when it isn’t a veneer, there’s something that means marquetry. “

Son Placo Studiolo, exhibited on the former Bishop of Toulon from 28 to 30 June, first noticed the sunshine of day within the type of very detailed work, bringing out the baroque decorations of a seaside city, and constructing the rhythms of woodwork within the facet inside that. Then, as soon as the measurements of the piece assigned to him had been taken, he moved on to chopping the plates in his workshop in Brussels armed with a jigsaw and a band noticed for mini -details reminiscent of flowers or snails. “It is undoubtedly a manifesto however very mushy with these pastel shades harking back to a child’s room! »

Willie, well mannered, doesn’t know which street will open for him. For the second, he believes that this work is simply too delicate, maybe worthy, to be preserved, to be coated with a protecting layer. After we inform him that Placo continues to be an industrial materials made for building and due to this fact with a sure resistance, he acknowledges that there’s a future for his methodology doubtless. Particularly since we’re seeing a giant return to the partitions, frescoes, lime paint, plaster bas-relief created as an alternative. “It’s true that the wall decorations they once more trigger starvation. There may be renewed curiosity in gesture but in addition in historic artwork and strategies. After which with a piece anchored in a spot, designed particularly for the place, related to the structure, which supplies a robust emotional worth.” And if Willie noticed his intervention at first as a short-term state of affairs, he understands with this Award that Placo nonetheless has benefits.

“Once I was engaged on my approach, I in contrast myself to a mason. So clearly, I did not slot in on the similar time. However I perceive that this materials has many properties that we don’t see, that aren’t open to human eyes. It is greener than concrete or cement! And it’s recyclable. As well as, its manufacturing consists of each large-scale trade and small workshops. Certainly, Saint-Gobain was my foremost associate in offering me with the Placo boards excluded from circulation rounds as a result of defects. As an alternative of placing them in an energy-intensive recycling cycle, Saint-Gobain gave them to me. I additionally collaborated with a small, lesser-known firm, Plâtres Vieujot, based mostly close to Enghien. She makes use of gypsum from the native quarry to make a really onerous plaster which allowed me to create the Studiolo ground. The groups use a approach forgotten: we’re actually within the course of heritage, very removed from the nice community of Saint-Gobain. It was additionally very attention-grabbing to have the ability to use these two facets on this set up. Interested by it Placo Studiolo it was additionally a manner of shining a lightweight on professions and nugatory materials that however deserve curiosity.” We will guess that this work is not going to stay an experiment and after this Grand Jury Prize on the Toulon Design Parade, Willie Morlon will probably be a wall in lots of interiors.

Design Parade: villanoailles.com

Contact Willie Morlon: williemorlon.be