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    India Mahdavi creates colourful scenography for Pierre Bonnard exhibition in Melbourne

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    Iranian-French architect India Mahdavi has designed an exhibition to present works by French painter Pierre Bonnard at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne.

    Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi presents more than 100 works by the famed 20th-century artist who is celebrated for applying an iridescent palette.
    India Mahdavi has offered her take on Pierre Bonnard’s paintings through the exhibition scenographyThe scenography design by Mahdavi, also known for her use of colour, is intended to create “an impression of his world, through my own eyes” according to the architect.
    Instead of typical white gallery walls, the spaces are awash with bold hues and patterns that she has chosen to complement the artworks.
    The architect chose colors and patterns to complement the artworksMany of the shades of yellow, pink, orange and green that adorn the walls and floors are lifted directly from the canvases, while floral-inspired repeated patterns offer a contrasting backdrop.

    Large carpets continue these motifs at different scales across the floors.
    Many of the colours were lifted from the artworksMahdavi has also placed some of her own furniture designs in the gallery spaces, offering visitors the opportunity to pause and appreciate the paintings and their surroundings.
    “Mahdavi envelopes Pierre Bonnard’s works in an environment that complements Bonnard’s distinct use of colour and texture, and evokes the wistful domestic intimacy for which his paintings are renowned,” said the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
    Several of Mahdavi’s furniture designs are placed in the galleriesBonnard was born in 1867, and his artistic career took off in the 1890s in Paris, where he began capturing street life.
    The artist’s focus then moved to domesticity, followed by landscapes thanks to the influence of his friend and neighbour in Normandy, Claude Monet.
    The exhibition is divided into 11 themes based on the subject matter of Bonnard’s paintingsBonnard later relocated to the south of France and created a large body of work there before his death in 1947.
    “The paintings of Pierre Bonnard depict intimate domestic interiors, natural landscapes and urban scenes with subtlety, wit and a sensuous approach to colour and light,” said the gallery.
    Some of the spaces are decorated entirely in one colourThe exhibition features loans from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which holds the world’s largest collection of Bonnard’s work, along with significant loans from other museums and private collections from around the world.
    It is organised around 11 themes, which include landscapes, interiors, still life, early nudes, and large decorations.

    India Mahdavi’s striped scenography provides backdrop for furniture exhibition

    There are also sections dedicated to his depictions of music and theatre, views from his 1920s studio in Le Cannet, and scenes of nature and daily life around the town.
    “For Bonnard, landscape painting was a hybrid genre and often included glimpses of interiors and still lifes,” said the gallery.
    Mahdavi is renowned for her use of colourThe gallery has hosted many immersive exhibitions and installations in recent years, including a scaled-down version of Greece’s famous Parthenon temple, a mist-filled chasm in its sculpture garden, and Nendo’s take on the drawings of MC Escher.
    Mahdavi’s best-known projects include the Gallery dining room at London restaurant Sketch, which she originally created in pale pink, then transformed with golden tones in 2022.
    Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi runs until 8 October 2023She recently updated six rooms within Rome’s 16th-century Villa Medici to feature an array of contemporary and colourful furniture.
    Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi forms part of NGV’s Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series, and runs from 9 June to 8 October 2023. For more exhibitions, events and talks in architecture and design visit Dezeen’s Events Guide. 
    The photography is by Lillie Thompson.

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      India Mahdavi enlivens Rome’s Villa Medici with bold geometric furnishings

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      Architect India Mahdavi has updated six rooms within Rome’s 16th-century Villa Medici to feature an array of contemporary and colourful furniture.

      The intervention comes as part of a three-year project called Re-enchanting Villa Medici, which was launched in 2022 to amplify the presence of contemporary design and craft within the Renaissance palace.
      India Mahdavi has furnished six rooms inside the Villa Medici including the Chamber of the Muses (above) and the Lili Boulanger room (top image)While the first phase of the project saw fashion brand Fendi revamp Villa Medici’s salons, Mahdavi was asked to freshen up rooms on the building’s piano nobile or “noble level”, where the main reception and the bedrooms are housed.
      She worked on a total of six spaces including the Chamber of the Elements, Chamber of the Muses and Chamber of the Lovers of Jupiter, which once served as an apartment to Cardinal Ferdinando de Medici.
      Several of Mahdavi’s Bishop stools were integrated into the designThe three other rooms – titled Debussy, Galileo and Lili Boulanger – were formerly used as guest quarters.

      In the Chamber of the Muses, which is topped with a dramatic coffered ceiling, Mahdavi inserted sea-green editions of her Bishop stool alongside an enormous hand-tufted rug by French workshop Manufacture d’Aubusson Robert Four.
      Its geometric design features green, purple, red, and rosy pink shapes, recalling the flowerbeds that appear across the villa’s sprawling gardens.
      Chairs were reupholstered with eye-catching raspberry-hued velvetOnly subtle alterations were made to the Chamber of the Elements and Chamber of the Lovers of Jupiter, where Mahdavi has repositioned an existing bed to sit against an expansive wall tapestry.
      Some of the chairs here were also reupholstered in raspberry-hued velvet.

      Fendi introduces modern furnishings to Rome’s historic Villa Medici

      A cluster of bright yellow sofas and armchairs sourced from the French conservation agency Mobilier National was incorporated into the Lili Boulanger room, named after the first female composer to take up residence at the villa.
      The furnishings sit on top of a blush-pink rug by French manufacturer La Manufacture Coglin and are accompanied by octagonal tables designed by Mahdavi.
      The Lili Boulanger room has a grouping of bright yellow sofas and armchairsA Renaissance-style four-poster bed was added to the room named after astronomer Galileo Galilei, who reportedly visited Villa Medici twice in his lifetime.
      The bed’s tiered wooden base and headboard were inlaid with graphic, berry-toned marquetry by cabinetmaker Craman Lagarde. The pattern, which also appears on the curtains that enclose the bed, takes cues from the design of the villa’s flooring.
      A grand four-poster bed is inlaid with berry-tone marquetryA similar bed can be seen in the room named after French composer Claude Debussy. But this time, the marquetry done by French furnituremaker Pascal Michalon is executed in more “acidulous” colours that Mahdavi said reminded her of Debussy’s piano piece Clair de lune.
      Mahdavi has lent her distinctive colour-rich aesthetic to a number of significant venues. Recent examples include the lavish London restaurant Sketch, to which she added sunshine-yellow and golden furnishings.
      The photography is by François Halard.

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      Yinka Shonibare and India Mahdavi bring “a warm feel of Africa” to London restaurant Sketch

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      British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare and architect India Mahdavi have redesigned the Gallery dining room at London venue Sketch, adding site-specific artworks, warm golden colours and textured materials to its interior.

      The project, which is the latest in a string of artist collaborations from Sketch, features a series of 15 artworks by Shonibare dubbed Modern Magic. These were designed specifically for the space.
      The Gallery at Sketch is now covered in warm yellow huesMahdavi incorporated sunshine-yellow and golden colours to the interior alongside textured materials informed by Shonibare’s installation, including a copper skin on one of the walls.
      “Yinka’s artwork was a real inspiration and enticed me to work differently,” Mahdavi told Dezeen. “Textures have transcended colours by using a strong palette of materials.”
      “I used elements that have allowed me to extend Yinka’s artistic exploration of culture and identity, and bring a warm feel of Africa to the space and furnishings.”

      Artworks by Yinka Shonibare decorate the wallsMahdavi was also responsible for choosing the colour that previously dominated the interior of Sketch’s Gallery – a pale pink hue that became an Instagram favourite and remained in the room for eight years.
      “The Gallery at Sketch has been linked to the colour pink for such a long time that it was very challenging for me to overcome this success,” she said.
      This time, Mahdavi aimed to change the focus away from just the colour.
      “I didn’t want everybody to ask me what the new colour at the gallery is and therefore, I really worked on textures and materials that are evocative of the richness of Africa,” she explained. “Warmth is the new colour at Sketch.”
      Designer India Mahdavi worked with different textures for the interiorShonibare’s Modern Magic installation includes five hand-carved wooden masks as well as 10 framed quilts, which replicate African masks collected by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.
      “Picasso was interested in appropriating from another culture and I also appropriate from European ethnic art,” Shonibare explained.
      “Cultural appropriation can be a two-way street,” he added. “This collaboration with Sketch has given me an opportunity to expand my creative process – creating a different environment to encounter and experience my art in a fun and relaxing setting.”
      Pieces were designed especially for the spaceThe artworks are complemented by tactile furniture pieces and accessories designed for the Gallery.
      “I chose yellow fabrics and leather to cover the banquettes,” Mahdavi said. “It is the colour of sun and happiness.”
      “The subtle shades of yellow vary from one piece to another carrying different patterns of weaved raffia, which were chosen within Aissa Dione’s collection of fabrics and specially woven for the project in Senegal.”

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      “The walls are covered in metallic copper paper by De Gournay to radiate the room and the wall lights are made in Ghanaian wicker by artist Inès Bressand,” she continued.
      “It was my way of helping Yinka take over the room without interfering with his work.”
      A copper wall reflects the lightMahdavi believes the new Sketch interior is more suitable for a post-Covid world.
      “The pink Gallery at Sketch lasted eight years instead of the two years initially planned,” she said.
      “I really believe that the pink room belonged to the pre-Covid era,” Mahdavi added. “It was fun, feminine and there was a certain lightness to it. The new Gallery at Sketch has more depth, the textures imply the feeling of togetherness.”
      “Textures have transcended colours,” Mahdavi said of the designSketch’s most recent artist collaboration was with UK artist David Shrigley, whose black-and-white drawings stood out against the pale pink colour of the Gallery and were also emblazoned on a collection of ceramics.
      Mahdavi, who is one of this year’s Dezeen Awards judges and will sit on the interiors design jury, was recently among a group of designers who reinterpreted Dior’s Medallion Chair at Salone del Mobile.
      Among Shonibare’s recent work is a set of bespoke stamps designed for the Royal Academy’s 250th anniversary.
      The photography is by Edmund Dabney.

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