Booth n°63
Jardin des Tuileries
Paris, France
For this year’s PAD Paris edition, Galerie Mélissa Paul unveils a solo show by Andrée and Michel Hirlet. Exploring the theme of modularity in volumes with little means, the exhibition features exclusive and unique artworks, along with limited-edition pieces based on the duo’s research from the 1970s—works that had been set aside, waiting to be revisited. With the support of the gallery, this long-unfulfilled desire for editing unique or highly limited series—aimed at collectors rather than mass production—has now found a space to exist and flourish.
Over the course of five decades, until Michel’s passing in 2020, the couple established a distinguished reputation for their diverse body of sculptural works and objects. Their wide range of interest, their passion for travel, their appreciation of the major influences in modern art, and their openly stated admiration for architecture, all provided a constant source of inspiration and a growing frame of reference.
Alternating between sculptures and functional furniture, the Hirlet explored the interplay of color and form through combinatory geometric volumes, spanning from intimate, small-scale pieces to monumental urban commissions.
These pieces, straddling both art and design, reaffirm how the principles of rigor, logic, and formal play—hallmarks of their research—remain as relevant as ever today.
With great humility toward their creations, Andrée and Michel Hirlet pursued their careers with complete independence. They have always favored creative freedom and focused experimentation as a duo over the relentless pursuit of commercial or media success, or even industrial support for their technical solutions. Yet, their aesthetic ideals have been at the forefront of the questions posed by designers and decorators of their generation on an international level.
