‘Jean Prouvé – The Poetics of the Technical Object’ (review)

Jean Prouvé - The Poetics of the Technical Object comprised a varied display of prototypes, realized products from beds to bicycles, drawings, photographs, models, components, films, and computer databases that elegantly documented Prouvé’s career, conveying both its variety and remarkably consistent development. From February 5, 2008, the exhibition was accompanied by the construction and rebuilding of one of Prouvé’s pre-fabricated metal houses, La Maison Tropicale (1951) at Tate Modern. A time-lapse film of the construction is available at http://www.lamaisontropicale.com/www/. In addition to experiencing La Maison Tropicale first hand, visitors to the Design Museum exhibition were encouraged to enter a range of spaces, whether physically, by stepping into a full-scale room set or walking under a structural roof element, or imaginatively, by examining furniture displayed in front of large-scale photographs of Prouvé’s own home, or by viewing a filmed interview with Prouvé.