Le Mobilier national announced on Thursday an ambitious plan to help its partners, the trades of crafts and design, very weakened by the economic crisis resulting from the confinement.
The illustrious institution installed at Les Gobelins, which has created, conserved and restored tapestries, carpets and furniture since the 17th century, and had been singled out last year by the Court of Auditors for its outdated and unprofitable methods, feels " at the heart of a particularly fragile ecosystem , ”she explains in a press release.
500,000 euros plan
With nearly 500 partners - artisans, manufacturers, publishers, designers, creators, interior architects - Mobilier national is not only " a guardian of the Temple " but " an actor in the reconstruction of our social model », Notes its director Hervé Lemoine, who works on the national furniture improvement. The plan, endowed with 500,000 euros, should notably help design, the sector of the future, creator of sustainable jobs and " preserve manual trades, bearers of values often sought for possible retraining ", according to the press release.
A commission will acquire works by artists and designers from the French scene (tapestry cartoons, models of furniture design). They will be used to produce prototypes within the Research and Creation Workshop, or to weave tapestries in the factories of Gobelins, Beauvais or Savonnerie. The works produced in the workshops will enter the Furniture collections.
The “ royalties ” obtained in 2020 by the furniture edition will be fully reinvested in favor of the young designer. The plan also provides for the acquisition of furniture by contemporary designers from French publishers and galleries.
Collective catering campaign
A campaign to restore the collection of furniture from the 1930s to the 1950s, the first in France, will also be launched. It will be entrusted to cabinetmakers, upholsterers in siege, gilders, bronzers, manufacturers, watchmakers, textile restorers who mesh the territory. Le Mobilier national will double its orders to its network of subcontractors.
The plan also intends to help short circuits, by developing a production of tapestry and carpets gradually integrating wool from French herds. Finally, an auction of “ downgraded ” furniture - out of the public domain, no longer having any use or heritage value - will be organized in the fall, during the European Heritage Days. Its profits will be donated to the Paris Hospitals Foundation - Hospitals of France.
