It’s raining with weather warnings of harsh squalls the evening Atelier Fomenta opens its doors. I am slightly damp when I enter the studio. Hidden on the second floor of a warehouse complex, Atelier Fomenta’s first open studio, Duets and Dialogues, invites those passing by to follow a melodic conversation to an open loft. Inside, the walls cocoon the worktables with scraps of blueprints and loose paper; mingling guests, sipping cups of cider, weave between reposed pieces from Atelier Fomenta’s complete collection. This is the first time Atelier Fomenta is showing the entirety of their collection with the public.
Atelier Fomenta is a collective of three women, Julia Arvelo, Florence Barnabé, and Muriel Bentolila, whose shared practice produces interior pieces that challenge the warmth and comfort that can be found in more industrial structures and materials often not considered for home decor. Fomenta, meaning to encourage, to foster, to advance and promote, murmurs through pieces like the Rubber Libraries hitched along the walls, or the Nao lamps that appear to captivate several of the guests.
What first catches my eye is the Fold Hang. A modular cushioned seat that converts to a low table. The sleek design, the cold metallic against the cushioned seat, is attractive yet intimidating.
This is the first project made collectively by the women of Atelier Fomenta, designer Muriel tells me. She brings me over to demonstrate its modularity. The legs are tubes, designed to hold the stands of the backrest securely, while also providing the ease of removal. She detaches the seat for me, unwrapping it from its secure place along the fold. What’s left is a sheeny metallic, industrial style coffee table.
Have you sat on it? Muriel asks. I have not. She repositions the seat, refolding the cushioning in place – that’s why it’s called Fold Hang, she remarks. I am nervous to sit. Often, something so beautiful lacks the comfort required to make it functional. But as I sink into the cushioned seat, a giggle escapes my lips. It is so comfortable and I wonder why more are not sitting. Perhaps they, too, don’t know that the craftsmanship here is both for the eyes and for the body.
I am brought to the Catenaries – not an official part of the collection, but a special project commissioned for the Espace Vanderborght in Brussels. It is a derivation from the Fold Hang inspired by lovers, I am told. Perhaps two lovers are waiting for each other at the park or the train station. Deux et Deux. During the open studio, the modular seating isn’t present – only the Nao lamp shining over the table – but the full design can be seen amongst the loose paper pinned on the walls near the work table. Their studio is a half-measure of a gallery and a workshop.
There are pieces offered in the collection that are specialized by individual members of the collective, such as the Mesito tables done by Julia or the Espejo mirrors, designed by Muriel. Yet, most of the work is done as a collective, like the jestful Dice stools made from Canadian maple, and the Construction I lamp that left me with an insatiable desire to see it clipped on my writer’s desk. The Rubber Libraries are inky, black shelving made from the synthetic material and held together by rivets that challenge the conception of what materials can create beautiful pieces for the home. Constructed with methods used for forming jeans, the synthetic rubber, often associated with being discarded, becomes a strong yet playful, bubbly, and functional cubby. Much like their Nao lamps, which take such an overtly “outside” and ordinary design, Atelier Fomenta builds pieces that are, as they describe, slightly ironic yet functional. The aluminum Nao lamp extracts the nostalgia and liminality of the singular street lamp and offers it to the home.
Atelier Fomenta’s studio, available for visits via appointment, promises continued innovation and playful nodes to the subverted ordinary life. And their first open studio, Duets and Dialogues, was a welcome first introduction to a collective of women set on opening the conception of design currently offered by Montreal Ateliers.
Hannah Verina White is a Montreal and Toronto-based writer. She has a deep love for the melodramatic and nostalgic, both of which influence the way she writes and the subjects she chooses to write about.