Julie Richoz, Star on the Go

Julie Richoz, Star on the Go

Julie Richoz is a sensitive French-Swiss designer with a distinctive style and an eye for detail, which has opened up a world of endless creative opportunities. She works on many projects and various collaborations. The sensation of movement runs throughout her lines of lamps, rugs and jewellery, captured like a moment suspended in time. After completing her studies at the renowned  École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL), she continued down an impressive path, working alongside Pierre Charpin for a time, and winning several prestigious prizes (the Swiss Design Award in 2015 and Grand Prix du jury à la Design Parade de la Villa Noailles in 2012) ; all while acting as artist in residence in a number of places. Thanks to such a rich and varied background, Julie Richoz is now in search of new ways to experiment and explore materials and their constraints. Whether created in wood, metal or glass, every piece she makes embodies a delicacy and charm that is unique in character. Designed for an everyday use, each one playfully reflects light while offering a fresh take on perspective and depth.  The result is mesmerising, and has unsurprisingly caught the imagination of huge artisan houses as well as the well known galleries kreo. Every time we have the chance to meet Julie Richoz, we cannot help but be astonished by her talent. Now meet this rising artist that hasn’t finished to make talk about her.

Julie Richoz, Star on the Go
Julie Richoz, Star on the Go

Julie, which objects do you work on?

Julie

A bit of everything. I recently made outdoor furniture for Tectona, a lamp for Louis Poulsen and carpets for Cogolin. I work as much for galleries as for furniture producers. I don’t have a favourite material, I like adapting to the constraints and wealth of everything possible.

Can you tell us a bit about some of your works?

Julie

I did a residency of one year at the CIRVA, in Marseille, a place where artists work on glass. We were very free since the only instructions were to make a vase. I went there regularly and we really worked with the glass blowers in the workshop. I created the collection of the “Vases Oreilles”. A part in blown glass and a part in molten glass, just like a glass sandwich, with lines of colours in the edge. For Armand, I wanted to reproduce the phenomenon of fuzziness and the way colours intertwine. The limits of the object fade, like a sort of coloured vibration. It has not been made to be used, it’s just to have something coloured in our homes. It’s a project I made when I was a student and that I showed at the Villa Noaille. A London gallery offered me to make a limited collection out of it. I realised at this very moment this thing could also be considered as an object. I had in mind impressionist painters, who paint little and contrasted strokes of colours, and the painter Armand Guillaumin.

What led you to design objects?

Julie

After having been to a high school in applied arts, I knew I wanted to do something linked to creation. It could have been anything, as long as it was creative and related to a daily use. Therefore, I studied at the ECAL in Lausanne. Then, I participated in the Design Parade competition and have assisted Pierre Charpin for 3 years. It was like not choosing because I thought that thanks to the object I could do diverse things. Volume and 3D are not present in graphic design and I was interested in it. I love the fact that, when you do this, you’re in relation with a lot of occupations in crafts or with brands that can ask very precise things. Designing is a sort of link between several fields.

Julie Richoz, Star on the Go
Julie Richoz, Star on the Go

I don’t really like the idea of defining myself: let’s say I have the feeling I’m interested in the materiality of objects, how they are made and what they can bring.

Julie Richoz, Star on the Go
Julie Richoz, Star on the Go

What are you currently working on?

Julie

I’m preparing a small exhibition in Milan for the organisation IN Residence. For 10 years now, they have been inviting designers to give workshops to students in Turin. This year, they organise an event where every creative person who participated are invited to propose a project, on the theme of Talisman. This is why I’m working on jewels. Now they are paper models but it will be metal. I also keep working on carpets for Cogolin, a carpet fabric in the South of France. They weave on wood looms which have been the same since 1900.

What does inspire you?

Julie

I love art in general. What I can see in exhibitions, but also during trips, in the cities I visit, in flea markets… There are also the objects I made that enable me to develop every sort of formal languages that I then use for other projects.

Do you have a recognizable hand?

Julie

Maybe not a hand. But I think the objects I make are linked, and little by little, they evolve like a sprawling world. I don’t really like the idea of defining myself: let’s say I have the feeling I’m interested in the materiality of objects, how they are made and what they can bring… It’s actually something very visual, even sculptural. I like playing with materials and their constraints, just like for the Thalie basket for Artecnica where the metal elasticity places great importance on surprise.

What’s your relation with the objects you create?

Julie

It’s not always easy to have an object, so when you have one, you preciously keep it for exhibitions. I have a few at my place but I don’t want my house to be a showroom. With the Villa Noailles, I have been able to exhibit for two years and to show my production during the residency associated to existing objects. I love it. Assembling projects, linking two of them and creating a sort of space around this is quite a magic moment. Meeting people and observing their reactions is also wonderful. It’s the opportunity to show something 100% personal.

Julie Richoz, Star on the Go
Julie Richoz, Star on the Go
Julie Richoz, Star on the Go

Crédits : Eve Campestrini @thesocialitefamily.com

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