Between Realities

Between Realities is a dual exhibition presenting new and recent works of Japanese-French design duo, Aki+Arnaud Cooren, in dialogue with the works of German-born contemporary artist Thomas Demand. The exhibition develops the themes underpinning both artist’s creative oeuvres that lean into the visual play between “what is real” and “what is illusion”.

In their minimalist Tiss-Tiss series, Aki+Arnaud succinctly combine the harshness of metal with the fragile poetry of fabric. They developed a special manufacturing process which incorporates the process of sand-casting to achieve the appearance of intricate, handmade detail on the object’s surface. They mould a silicone duplicate of an original cardboard and linen master model, which is then sand-cast in aluminium, and dyed in colour. The duo experimented with this technique already in 2017 when their first Tiss-Tiss low chair which was awarded the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for l’intelligence de la main (the intelligence of the hand). It took them almost four years to develop the process, further resulting in a large amount of works which complete the Tiss-Tiss collection.