Johan Brunel

Johan Brunel
Period: 2015-2016
Profession: Designer Johan Brunel was born in 1977. A graduate of the metal workshop at the National School of applied arts and crafts and of the National School of Industrial Creation, he successively worked as designer in Israel, as scenic designer for the Centre Pompidou and teacher of design at the Superior School of Art and Design in Reims. In 2004 he founded atelier[jes] with Samuel Misslen. Within this group, he created interactive devices for the City of Science and Industry in Paris and the Museum of Air and Space at Le Bourget, places for which he sought to invent new forms of visits. Designer and builder, he has created unique pieces and layouts for individual clients and galleries. In a collective self-production process, he designed household objects:
Usinage & sentiments (‘Usinage’ & feelings’), a range of furniture produced in his studio or
Hand in Hand , a collection of bamboo objects created in dialogue with craftsmen in Taiwan. In 2014, he was appointed winner of the Prix Émile Hermès for
La Capsule Ventilée (‘The  Ventilated Capsule’), a relaxing bioclimatic shelter for hot countries. At Villa Medici, Johan Brunel will concentrate on the issue of water in Rome. Entitled
La Rencontre (‘The Meeting’) –  between north and south, the Finnish sauna culture and ancient thermal baths – his project will consist in contemplating the contemporary relationship with water within a global context of rarefaction. Water is a heritage of Roman engineering and art of living as well as an inalienable legacy of humanity. He will address it as a resource and as a matter, but also as a risk, that can just as easily trigger wars as unite human beings. He will gather inspiration from water’s unifying role and live potential, vector of culture(s), social sharing and common imagery, in order to create further projects.