A monumental exhibition of French design revives the spirit of art deco for contemporary times

A century after the 1925 ‘Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes’ laid the foundations of art deco, Paris rekindles the spirit of the ensemblier – that visionary who fuses architecture, furniture and the decorative arts into one coherent whole.

Until 2 November 2025, the Galerie des Gobelins hosts the inaugural Salon des Nouveaux Ensembliers, under the patronage of France’s manufactures nationales – Sèvres and Mobilier national. In the lineage of art deco’s pioneers, the salon gathers a new generation of interior architects invited to rethink the dialogue between form, function and meaning in contemporary living.

Paris' new Salon des Nouveaux Ensembliers: the embassy of tomorrow

Under the theme ‘L’Ambassade de demain’ (the embassy of tomorrow), ten architect-decorators (nine French and one Brazilian, in celebration of 2025 as France-Brazil Year) reinterpret the symbolic spaces of diplomacy: offices, vestibules, salons and reception rooms.

Their brief is as pertinent as it is ambitious: how can design today embody representation, openness and exchange, while embracing ecological and social responsibility? Each designer has imagined an experimental embassy space, selecting one specific area within the building as the framework for their vision. These embassies function as both interiors and laboratories of ideas, exploring diplomacy as a contemporary art of encounter.

Visitors enter through the monumental French doors into Emilieu’s nomadic embassy – a reversible contemporary camp furnished only with essentials, where diplomacy becomes movement, imagination and exchange. To the right, dach&zéphir reinterpret the vestibule as a suspended Caribbean threshold of air and light, while Sophie Dries creates a salon of artistic conversation, featuring bespoke pieces created in collaboration with Baccarat, Christofle and other French maisons.

Dialogues in motion

To the left, Estúdio Rain transforms the hall into a promenade of cultural exchange between France and Brazil, while Marion Mailaender reimagines the diplomatic dinner as a theatre of savoir-faire, where every object sparks dialogue.

The gallery’s twin staircases are re-envisioned by Poush, Europe’s vast artist campus based in Aubervilliers. Eight of its artists transform these in-between spaces into creative stages: from Ugo Schildge’s Fleurs d’Artifice and Anna Le Corno’s Silence Obscur, to Pauline Guerrier’s ethereal Chimère and Thomas Ballouhey’s sculptural Console Répartition. Hidden behind the monumental staircase, La Stryge by Eliott Paquet reveals itself – a protoform bench merging the sinuous ironwork of art deco metro gates with the austere geometry of brutalist concrete.

Architectures of Encounter

Upstairs, Mathilde Bretillot crafts an 'architecture of encounter': mirrors, bouquets, and brioche accompanied by the faint echo of Camus’ 1957 Nobel speech, leading to Paul Bonlarron’s poetic salle à manger, where plates and walls, shaped from reused waste and bread dough (in collaboration with boulangerie Poilâne), redefine the art of reuse.

At the centre of the exhibition, Le Bal des Matières – designed by Martin Lichtig – becomes an experimental showcase of innovative, sustainable materials, presented within a fully upcycled scenography. Further on, OUD presents Sur les rives du Nil, an ambassador’s office resonating with millennia of Egyptian heritage and French craftsmanship, where diplomacy and decor merge into one art form. Finally, in La Chambre du Président, Pierre Marie transforms ornament into reflection – a meditation on the visual language of power.

Craft, consciousness and continuity

Together, these ten spaces form a crucible of excellence, bringing together over 150 highly skilled French artisans, ranging from tiny workshops to renowned ateliers such as Atelier d’Offard and Atelier François Pouenat, and extending to iconic maisons including Le19M (Chanel), Lelièvre Paris, Diptyque, Maison Pierre Frey, Christofle, Manufacture Cogolin, and Debauve & Gallais, among many others.

Their work conveys a shared conviction: that beauty must now coexist with responsibility. Through sustainable design, meticulous craftsmanship, and poetic sensibility, Le Salon des Nouveaux Ensembliers offers a lucid response to the challenges of our times – not as an escape from reality, but as a way to confront it with imagination, grace, and purpose.

Le Salon des Nouveaux Ensembliers is on view at Galerie des Gobelins until 2 November 2025

42 Av. des Gobelins, 75013 Paris