Inside M/M (Paris)
This month sees design legends M/M (Paris) release an epic second volume of their monograph, M to M of M/M (Paris), plus host museum exhibitions in both Paris and Shanghai. Jean Grogan talks to the duo
Eight years after the publication of M to M of M/M (Paris), Thames & Hudson is publishing Volume II, a 456-page book that completes the monograph of the art and design duo Mathias Augustyniak and Michaël Amzalag, with a new selection of their projects created over the past three decades, and interviews with personalities from the creative world.
To mark the occasion, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris are joining forces for the first time, to invite M/M (Paris) to take over their galleries and insert their work within their permanent collections through a double exhibition on either side of the Seine, titled From One M/Museum to Another.
And as if that wasn’t enough, M/Made in Shanghai, the first retrospective exhibition of M/M (Paris) in China, will take place in parallel at Shanghai’s gigantic Power Station of Art. Here, we ask the duo to look back on three decades of influencing graphic design, art and fashion.
Creative Review: Is it fair to say that 2020 sees you in a retrospective mood?
Michaël Amzalag:It’s called a midlife crisis!
Mathias Augustyniak: It’s more about making things lighter. Now that our memory is fading, it’s important to write our recipes down in a book. I revisit a page to find a problem I’ve already solved so I don’t have to reinvent the process. It’s like, so far, so good, now let’s go further.