Chairs of Lost Time
Anthony Guerrée read In Search of Lost Time in 2013, a century after the publication of Marcel Proust’s first volume, and he was touched by the timeless and universal beauty of this literary masterpiece.
Proust’s gallery of colorful characters is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for many artists. Each of the book’s characters possesses a singular way of being in the world, of behaving in society.
Anthony Guerrée wondered whether he could design chairs that, like fictional characters, had personalities that could serve as allegories or incarnations. Could he give life, as it were, to his chairs?
By proposing a physical position, a seat can also convey a social position. The line, the comfort, the proportions of a chair not only suggest a way of sitting, but also a range of attitudes and possible scenarios.
It is with these concepts that Anthony Guerrée explores the relationship between applied art and literature.
He dedicates a chair to each of his favorite Proustian characters.