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Pulp Galerie, for its second participation at PAD Paris, has unveiled a range of selected furniture designs that evoke a strong response from visitors. Located in the heart of the ninth arrondissement in the capital of France, the art gallery will present designer furniture from the 1980s to 2000s in an apartment during the design event set to take place from April 2 - 6, 2025, bringing the pieces to life by establishing interconnections. Founded by Paul Ménacer-Poussin and Paul-Louis Betto, the Paris-based gallery will explore the paradoxes of art, design and utility through objects. For PAD Paris 2025, it has curated a design exhibition, featuring pieces crafted by acclaimed designers such as Gaetano Pesce, Alessandro Mendini, Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti, Paolo Pallucco and Mireille Rivier and the Pentagon Group.
“Pulp Galerie’s selection invites visitors to take a stand. Faced with these pieces, no one will remain satisfied with conventional design. This collection evokes an immediate reaction, a frenetic need to exclaim in admiration or aversion, but never indifference,” the press release mentions.
The works of Italian architect and designer Gaetano Pesce (1939–2024) at PAD Paris 2025 are described as ‘a visual and sensory call to self-reflection’, in the show’s press release. The Greene Street (1987) chair design features multiple steel members supporting the seating, which resembles the form of a draped cloth.
The series Nobody’s Perfect (2002) is characterised by anthropomorphic forms, featuring vibrant colours, bold silhouettes and eccentric details. Originally designed for the bold El Liston Bar, an interior design project in Japan, the 1986-built bespoke lamp design, the Square (1986) table lamp, breaks down a simple shape into grids to add complexity and visual depth.
Straddling the disciplines of decoration, art and design, French designer duo Elizabeth Garouste (b. 1946) and Mattia Bonetti (b. 1952) have introduced Barbare-style designs into the mix, reminiscent of ancient artefacts. The Barbare (1981) armchair‘s body is made from hammered metal with a green patina finish, covered in animal hide and fastened to the seat using leather straps. Their design for the Cage Haute (1981) bookcase highlights the simplicity of a cuboidal form, detailed with clean lines to exhibit a minimalist aesthetic.
Works by product designer Paolo Pallucco (b. 1950) and artist Mireille Rivier (b. 1959), an Italy-born duo, comprise furniture that exhibits a sculptural design quality. Inspired by Comme des Garçons’s artistic director Tohji Murata, their conceptual designs embody the ‘duro, semplice e chiaro’ principle, which means hard, simple and clear.
The exhibition presents a symmetrical piece, the Barba d’Argento (1986) armchair, in contrast with the W il Toro 2 sideboard (1982), which is ‘austere and unbalanced’ in terms of symmetry and functionality. Not adhering to the conventional practice of the quadrupedal furniture concept, the sideboard is reminiscent of the contrapposto sculptures from Italian visual arts.
Additionally, the gallery will also present the 1988 Milo lamp and the 1981 Cipriani Bar by Italian designer and architect Alessandro Mendini (1931-2019), Swiss architect Mario Botta’s 1984 Quarta chair, British-Israeli industrial designer Ron Arad’s 2000 Knox coffee table and Italian designer Gaetano Pesce’s 1993 Broadway 929 chair.
Pesce’s 1972 prototype O Sole Mio lamp will be an exclusive exhibit at the PAD Paris 2025, which could not be produced then due to the technical limitations of the time. Depicting a day as a rotation of the sun, the lighting design is a ‘metronome of time’, comprising a bright red-orange resin sun on a 1.8 m wide black steel ring that turns on at sunset and off at sunrise.
Pulp Galerie’s collection allows visitors to witness the convergence of art and design in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, where architects and designers rejected conventional design norms to create their unique language of expression. Transcending its utilitarian nature, the sculptural design pieces represent the identity of its designers and embody their outlooks on art, architecture and design.
In collaboration with scenographers Cyrille Van Dievoet and Hugo Travaux, Pulp Galerie is set to stage a life-sized game of chess by placing the exhibits as pieces on a concrete chessboard, providing an interactive and immersive experience. The upcoming exhibition will conceptualise the Cage Haute cabinet as a rook and the Cipriani Bar as a knight while using the O Sole Mio lamp as the clock that dictates the game’s temporal plane.
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