Origin stories hold a lot of clues to a designer’s beliefs and consequent trajectory, and Ibiyane’s is no different. ‘We started in 2020, during lockdown,’ explains Tania Doumbe Fines, who co-founded the studio with Élodie Dérond. ‘I basically had a notebook with things I wanted to do in my life, a bucket list I guess. And with my background in interior design, I wanted to make a chair. So I started designing an African birthing chair, and from that a friend of ours invited us to make a seat for an exhibition. Élodie started helping me and we just love the process of working together and bringing our ideas from our minds into actual objects crafted with our hands.’
While others across the globe allowed the pandemic and its attendant season of uncertainty to lead them to stasis, for Doumbe Fines and Dérond, it sharpened focus and galvanised a spirit of co-creation, at first in Montreal, and now in Martinique, near Dérond’s childhood home. Ibiyane was, and indeed still is, a studio that seeks to explore the stories we tell with the objects we make, and to incite deeper discourses between maker and collector.
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Denne historien er fra January 2024-utgaven av Wallpaper.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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POLE POSITION
A compact Melbourne house with a small footprint is big on efficiency and experimentation
URBAN OASIS
At an art-filled Mexico City residence, New York designer Giancarlo Valle has put his own spin on the country's traditional craft heritage
WARM FRONT
Designer Clive Lonstein elevates his carefully curated Manhattan home with rich textures and fabrics
BALCONY SCENE
A Brazilian island hotel offers a unique approach to the alfresco experience
ENSEMBLE CAST
How architect Anne Holtrop is leaving his mark on the Middle East
Survival mode
A new show looks at preparing for a post-apocalyptic landscape (and other catastrophes)
FLASK FORCE
A limited-edition perfume collaboration between two Spanish craft masters says it with flowers
BLOOM SERVICE
A flower-shaped brutalist beauty in Geneva gets a refresh
SECOND NATURE
A remodelled museum in Lisbon, by Kengo Kuma & Associates, meshes Japanese and Portuguese influences to create a space that sits in harmony with its surroundings
Guiding light
Designer Joe Armitage follows his grandfather's footsteps in India, reissuing his elegant midcentury lamp and creating a new chandelier for Nilufar Gallery