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Emmanuel Bossuet and Marie-Laure Bellanger are personalities who are dear to The Socialite Family. Living in an apartment with a very clear bias, they do not follow the current design trends and are considered a bit like extra-terrestrials by some. Working and living together, they are inspired by their travels and by books. Insatiable, they are passionate about Italian art and ancestral processes around bronze work and sculpture. Emmanuel has also just been awarded the post of artistic director by the famous Maison Charles for their next collection. It is an exhibition of craftsmanship that we will soon discover online. We are very proud to present their eclectic interior decor.
Emmanuel, Marie-Laure, can you introduce yourselves? What do you do for a living?
We are decorative artists and art directors.
What was your education in décor and furniture?
We are more style than deco people and it was the world of luxury especially that made us aware of this reality very young.
What style inspires you the most? An era in particular, an artist, a country?
In our conception of history, which favours large ruptures, I take particular interest in transition styles and artists, whatever the period. But we could add to that in a general way exceptional know-how, the adventure of modernism, counter-culture, encounters between art and science… We move constantly from one to the other of these concepts in our work.
Where do you work?
At home, mostly, but also very often in the workshops of our customers and partners. Here in Paris however we did not want to set-up office space as such, so we created a library lounge where we work, but where this function remains very mobile. Almost transparent.
Where do you like to spend time at home?
In the living room, which is still a space in the making because we are counting on adorning it with frescoes… This is where we receive guests until the wee hours.
How did you design the space in terms of furniture?
We stripped the apartment down to nothing when we entered it, only preserving strictly original features; the organisation was then done logically enough respecting the intelligence of the place and what might remain relevant of the scenarios dictated by the petty bourgeois pomp. It was easy enough as the architects did an exemplary job for this investment building, especially in the proportions. As for furniture, we had already brought the most part together. And friends like Mathias Kiss and Pierre Gonalons very often make the friendly gesture of entrusting pieces to us depending on their mood. This evolves accordingly.
The inexpensive object of which you are most proud?
Without hesitation, the Inconnu de la Seine (the Unknown of the Seine – on the mantle in the library). A great fervour surrounded this moulding in artistic circles at the turn of the twentieth century. This death mask paradoxically marks for us a kind of ground zero: it is our household Lares.
The object of your wildest dreams?
The objects we have not yet drawn but whose necessity we already perceive, by reflection.
What is your current favourite?
We do not really have one… We prefer works that by their nature escape immediacy or seasonality. Time Trieth Truth.
What do you consider a bad taste faux pas?
Considering something as authentic that lacks authenticity, like the venal copy of a bad copy. Whether it be for a thing or an attitude.
What are your future projects?
Crédits : Constance Gennari @thesocialitefamily
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