The late, great Pauline Deltour is honoured with an exhibition at the newly revamped MADD Bordeaux

‘An Apparent Simplicity’: this title speaks volumes about the life and work of French designer Pauline Deltour. Brought together at MADD (Musée Des Arts Décoratifs Et Du Design) in Bordeaux, France, her body of work embodies not only her minimal yet playful style, but also her elegance and coherence. One hundred and eighty designs (including prototypes) over ten years. This number speaks to the enthusiasm and vitality that infused her short life (1983-2021).

Her path, through ENSAD (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) in Paris, and then Konstantin Grcic’s studio in Munich, hints at her design approach, which balances freedom à la française with German rigour and order.

‘Pauline Deltour: An Apparent Simplicity’ at MADD, Bordeaux

‘Pauline Deltour: An Apparent Simplicity’ (until 21 September 2026) also celebrates the partial reopening of MADD. After three years of restoration and renovation, under the direction of Antoine Dufour Architectes, two buildings classified as ‘Monuments Historiques’ by the Ministry of Culture are united: a late-18th-century townhouse and a late-19th-century municipal prison. The latter houses Deltour’s show.

Here, two former courtyards, where prisoners were allowed to hang out, are transformed into spacious galleries. To contrast with the original limestone walls, the ceilings are covered with metal and glass, letting in sunlight. Around the periphery of the former courtyards sit several small cells.

This is the perfect layout to segment Deltour’s vastly varied body of work: from metal to porcelain, textiles to sweets, tableware to tech, noble materials to natural supplies, and craft to industrial production. The scenography conceived by Konstantin Grcic and Caroline Perret (CPWH) injects energy into the show. All over the exhibition, huge photographs, still-lifes, and portraits of Deltour herself, in dynamic composition, lean against the stone wall.

The first courtyard is occupied by a long, narrow table and functional small objects, as if a vessel with a huge family of Deltour’s designs was setting sail. Although there is no viewing order, visitors might step into the left cell first. The space is dedicated to the ‘A Tempo’ for Alessi, a collection of stainless-wire baskets and a dish drainer, the mass-produced project that launched her career. The products developed from a basket from her ENSAD degree project, inspired by the ocean’s undulation and a coil seen at a factory.

Adjacent is a reconstitution of Pauline Deltour Design Office, an invitation to take a peek behind the scenes of her research and process. Here, a series of sketch-filled notebooks reveals her way of working, while books and personal objects suggest her inspirations. 'We wanted to highlight, above all, her strong, clearly defined style, a method, and a way of approaching projects,' says Etienne Tornier, the museum’s decorative art and design curator.

The invisible, practical details of Pauline Deltour's designs

Moving through the exhibition, visitors can experience the pieces of the ‘Bonhomie’ collection, a tea service created in collaboration with long-established Japanese porcelain maker Arita. The genius of this design is that the base of the teacup is heavy and thick for stability, while the sides remain delicate; Deltour was particular about invisible but practical details.

The next two cells demonstrate Deltour’s capacity to conjure with graphic lines. Tornier analyses her geometric objects for Puiforcat: 'For her, the line sometimes serves as a structuring element,' he says. While straight lines make a three-dimensional stripe for Cire Trudon, curved lines create an innovative system for JEM, the French ethical fine jewellery brand: as part of its ‘Étreintes’ collection, a half ring or a half bracelet of 18ct gold interlocks, becoming a complete piece. This system offers various design options, plain or hybrid: both in the same material, or mixing yellow and white gold, or mother-of-pearl inlay and set diamonds, among other examples.

The second courtyard is dedicated to Deltour's furniture for several brands (including COR, Offecct, and Hem). If she has often been described as 'a shooting star in contemporary design', these pieces of furniture are the perfect metaphor of her constellation.

Visitors are free to try out the seating. Among the designs, the most popular is the garden chair from the ‘Patio’ collection for Tolix, which is also placed outside within the MADD site.

Six cells surrounding this furniture gallery gather designs that include bags for Vitra and Fabernovel, clothing for Sogo & Seibu, a connected bicycle for La Poste, rugs for Hem and even interiors for Moustache and Hôtel Les Touquets. Altogether, they suggest Deltour’s perspective on the body and movement, and her bold sense of colour. 'It is interesting to see how colour influences form and the perception of form,' Tornier adds.

A monograph of the same title as the exhibition has been published for the occasion. More than a catalogue, it is a rich collection of memoirs and photographs, of products but also personal archives. The book is intimate and deeply moving, not only on account of a life cut short, but of the nature of Deltour’s work and personality.

‘Pauline Deltour: An Apparent Simplicity’ is on view through 21 September 2026 at MADD, Bordeaux