Willy Morlon, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, has just won the Grand Jury Prize at the Design Parade in Toulon for his interior architecture project around Placoplatre. A portrait of a young talent who discovers a material that is unfairly disliked.
“My project has no future.” This is undoubtedly a sentence that would have given the jury of the Toulon Design Parade, presided over for this 2024 edition by the interior architect and designer Marion Mailleander. Because 31-year-old Willy Morlon, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, first of all wanted to offer a kind of manifesto by participating in this competition with him; Placo Studiolo, a room reminiscent of a Mediterranean palace dressed floor-to-ceiling in Placoplatre, a recycled marquetry. And he never envisioned the material he chose as permanent.
Luc Bertrand
“As part of my artistic practice, I quickly turned to Placo. Since the end of the First World War and with the reconstruction, it has had a great influence on the design of interior spaces. Sealed between two cardboard sheets, this stucco is essentially not meant to be displayed or to last for ages. It’s the coatings and paints that make it strong, explains the man, who completed a law degree before becoming a visual artist. I made sculptures out of Placo and when I heard about the Design Parade in Toulon, I told myself that with this Placo I could make a connection between art and architecture. So I expanded my approach to a four-wall, ceiling, floor spatial and immersive approach. It was an opportunity to expand my field of creativity and investigation. »
A man passionate about patterns, who grew up in his parents’ thrift store, where he still works, and who fed on beauty while enriching it with know-how, he developed a unique artisanal gesture using poor material. . “Depending on their characteristics, Placoplatre sheets have different colors,” he continues. Gray is reserved for standard Placo, green stands for waterproofing boards, which are therefore used in bathrooms, pink is the color of fireproofing and blue is for acoustics. I decided to use these plates not for their features, but for their aesthetic qualities. I cut out pieces of color that I put in others. Even if it’s not covered up, there’s something there that’s marketing-driven.”
Luc Bertrand
His Placo Studiolopresented from June 28 to 30 in the former diocese of Toulon, saw the light of day for the first time in the form of very precise drawings that recall the baroque ornaments of a seaside villa and adopt the rhythms of the woodwork of this interior. Then, once the measurements for the piece he was assigned were complete, he moved on to cutting the sheets in his workshop in Brussels, armed with a jigsaw and a band saw for details like flowers or snails. “It’s definitely a manifesto, but very soft with these pastel shades that remind you of a child’s room. »
Modest Willy does not know what path will open before him. At the moment, he considers this work too fragile, perhaps worthy of being preserved, covered with a protective cover. When we tell him that Placo is still an industrial material made for construction and therefore with some resistance, he realizes that there is definitely a future for his technique. Especially since we’re seeing massive returns on walls, murals, lime paint, plaster bas-reliefs created on site. “It’s true that the wall decoration is going crazy again. There is a new interest in gestures, but also in art and ancient techniques. And then having a work anchored in a place designed specifically for a space, integrated into the architecture, that brings a very strong emotional value.” And if Willy initially perceived his intervention as a temporary installation, with this award he realizes that Placo still has assets.
Luc Bertrand
“While working on my technique, I compared myself to a stonemason. So obviously I didn’t fit into the same temporality. But I understand that this substance, which we cannot see, which is not exposed to the human eye, has many qualities after all. It is greener than concrete or cement. And it’s recyclable. In addition, its production includes both large industries and small workshops. Indeed, Saint-Gobain was my main partner in supplying me with Placo boards that were excluded from distribution circuits due to defects. Instead of putting them through an energy-intensive recycling cycle, Saint-Gobain gave them to me. I also collaborated with a small, much lesser known company, Plâtres Vieujot, based near Engien. He uses gypsum from a local quarry to make an extremely hard floor plaster that allowed me to create the Studiolo floor. Teams use forgotten techniques. we are truly in the heritage realm, far removed from the great Saint-Gobain chain. Using these two sides in this setup was also very interesting. Thinking about it Placo Studiolo it was also a means of shedding light on the professions and a devalued material which, nevertheless, deserves to be interested in.” We can bet that this work will not remain as an experiment and that Willy Morlon will be the wall of many interiors after this Grand Jury Prize at the Toulon Design Parade.
Design parade. villanoailles.com:
Contact with Willie Morlon. williemorlon.be:
Source: Le Figaro
