Guillaume Bardet

As a child, Guillaume Bardet used to draw, as he still does. On paper tablecloths, newspapers, napkins and in sketchbooks. He invents forms, as he once did in Rouen, where he was born in 1971, and where he lived until he was fifteen. On arriving in Paris, he kept on drawing, got bored in lessons, attended sculpture classes and dreamt of finishing secondary school so that he could finally do what he liked. His first year studying architecture was hardly convincing, but in 1993, when he began attending the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD), Paris, he knew that he’d found the right place. No longer the poor student, he shot to the top of the class. And justifiably so: he took an interest in everything, enjoyed everything. That’s where he met Jean-Marie Massaud, with whom he teamed up immediately after graduating. Then he decided to set up on his own. The bursary he was awarded by the French Academy in Rome enabled him to produce his first major project: “Mobilier Immobile” (“Immobile Furniture”), nine atypical marble pieces. While continuing to design furniture, he started working in interior and urban design, gaining experience that he passed on to his students when employed as project manager at the École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle (ENSCI), Paris, from 2005 onwards. In 2007, Guillaume Bardet left the capital with his wife and son and settled in the Drôme region, where he used to spend his holidays as a child. He knew that one day he would work with clay again, a medium he’d always liked. At last he had the time to start this race against the clock called L’Usage des jours. A veritable creative challenge. Two years have gone by; 365 pieces have seen the day. In October 2011, he receives, together with the ceramists, the prestigious « Dialogue de l’intelligence de la main » prize from the Bettencourt Foundation. The « Usage des jours » project travels across Europe: exhibits at Sèvres – City of Ceramics in Sèvres, France (January – April 2012), then at the Grand-Hornu in Belgium (May – September 2012), at the Château des Adhémar – Contemporary Art Centre in Montélimar, France (October – December 2012) and finally at the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts (Mudac) in Lausanne, Switzerland (March – May 2013).