Prix Emile Hermès: ‘Mola' musings

In October-November, when Suman and Poulami Biswas of Space Tale Designs, a furniture boutique in Kolkata, responded to the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès’ (Hermès Foundation’s) call for entries for Prix Emile Hermès, a biennial design award, they did so in the midst of the noise and frenzy of Durga Puja. The bustle of West Bengal’s favourite and busiest festival becomes a point of reflection only in retrospect because the theme of the Hermès international design competition’s third edition was “Time of Yourself”.

For this, product designers from around the world were asked to retreat into an unhurried space in their minds and think of time as a longer, wider, private concept beyond the rush hour or time-bound obligations.

Last month, Suman, who runs Space Tale Designs, and Poulami, his junior in design, were told that the jury of six global experts chaired by Italian designer and architect Michele de Lucchi had given them a special recommendation for Mola (Mother’s Lap), their cocooning blue chair. Inspired by the maternal cocoon, Mola’s visual inspiration, says Suman, was Jamini Roy’s painting Mother And Child, in which a child is seen wrapped in his mother’s sari.

Made from a bunch of blue, recycled Bengal cotton, tant saris and eco-friendly cane, Mola is a large, enveloping chair that promises to cradle you and drown your worries. “In the first design brief, we had suggested banana leaf and cane as our primary materials but as the idea progressed to the actual prototype we thought old, recycled saris gave Mola more authenticity if it was imitating a mother’s lap,” says Suman. Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, which funded selected participants to develop the prototype from the design brief, encourages eco-friendly and sustainable materials and urged designers to engage with practical manufacturing and industrial expertise. Mola is intrinsically Indian both in philosophy and material, given its recycled, old saris. Other innovative products lined up for the honours—a rocking chair for all kinds of people, enabling a stable rocking motion, an airy personal cabin, webbed footwear for sea hiking, a fishing kit, a pencil sharpener that could double up as a cup-and-ball game. All the entries can be seen at www.prixemilehermes.com.

The jury eventually shortlisted 12 projects from 700 entries, all sent by professionals under 40 years of age, from 54 countries. While the first prize (shared by three) went to two French artists and one Swiss artist, Suman says their work was appreciated by the jury. Some of the jury members visited them in Kolkata to observe their work before the special recommendation was announced.

Another Indian designer, Yashesh Virkar, was one of the finalists in this year’s edition.