On Tuesday, Design Miami made an auspicious debut, not only owing to its ne-plus-ultra roster—many of the galleries showing in their hometown—but also to its extraordinary venue: the Hôtel de Maisons, an 18th-century mansion near the Musée d’Orsay that Karl Lagerfeld called home for roughly two decades (last month, it drew attention as the location for the Marni show).
“It’s an obvious city in so many ways with all its experts in 20th and contemporary design,” Roberts said from the garden where the grass became an outdoor gallery. In one direction, Jean Prouvé Maison Démontable 6×6 reconstructed by Galerie Patrick Seguin; in another, the angular metal Chaises La Villette by Philippe Starck from Ketabi Bourdet. Over by the parterre, the Tsubo rotund vases by Kazunori Hamana care of Pierre Marie Giraud.
Photo: James Harris for Design Miami Paris
Inside, unlike a tented space that could have been staged in any city, there is no mistaking the anachronistic grandeur—think damask wallcoverings, gilded moldings, and intricate boiserie—as Parisian. This required the 27 exhibitors to recontextualize their offerings—some, like Galerie Kreo embracing the dissonance, while others such as Downtown-Laffanour adjusting for it as though imagining a private home. Glossy ceramic vessels by Torbjørn Kvasbø in the Hostler Burrows space stood out like alien forms under an ornate chandelier. In the Paulin Paulin Paulin room, the Pierre Paulin teal leather and rose lacquer desk and cane chair conceived in 1983 for French President François Mitterand at the Elysée Palace appeared as striking as ever in front of a silver glitter screen by John Armleder.