Paul Youenn is an artist-designer: by playing with scale, texture and proportion, he reveals the invisible and makes it tangible. His fascination with the invisible stems from his desire to understand systems, materials, cultures, relationships... Instinctively, when he seeks to understand, he zooms in.
His practice is marked by a sense of layering, fusing ancient know-how with cutting-edge technology. For him, this approach is a way of connecting generations and creating an open dialogue on subjects that intimately link past, present and future.
Born in 1997, Paul Youenn lives and works in Paris. He is a graduate of the Design Academy in Eindhoven (Netherlands).
He has been collaborating with various experts (Michelin-starred chefs, scientists, engineers…) since 2020. He also co-founded the duo Adaptism with Eliott Vallin: they develop contextual projects and Artwear pieces from industrial waste and High Couture brands.
Paul Youenn has exhibited his work in several major venues of contemporary art and design in Europe, such as 3537 in Paris, Alcova, Spazio Fonte in Milan, Kazerne in Eindhoven, Château Shloss Hollenegg in Austria... In Paris, he presented two duoshows: "Leftover" in 2022, curated by Anne Bourrasé, and "Fragment" in 2023, curated by Adaptism.
In addition to his artistic work, he also co-curated the "Corpus Machina" exhibition at the Consulat Voltaire during Paris Photo 2023. His project "Moon 925" was integrated into the permanent collection of the Silver Museum in the Netherlands in 2020. Since 2021, he has been an alumni of the Design Academy Eindhoven, a member of the jury at the French Institute of Design. He is co-president of @atelier_oe.
©Quentin Lacombe
Exhibitions
2024 Mar - group show "La mort en ce Jardin" - Paris, France
2023 Nov - group show "Corpus Machina" Paris Photo - Paris, France
2023 Sept - duo show "Fragments" Adaptism at Le Consulat - Paris, France
2023 Apr - Milan Design Week - group show at Spazio Fonte - Milan, Italy
2022 Sept - duo show "Leftover" Adaptism at Le Consulat - Paris, France
2022 Sept - Paris Design Week at 3537 - Paris, France
2022 May - Design Award Kazerne - Eindhoven, The Netherlands
2022 Mar - Castle Schloss Hollenegg - East to West - Hollenegg, Austria
2021 Nov - Dutch Design Week / Kazerne - Eindhoven, The Netherlands
2021 Nov - Design Academy Graduation Show 21 - Eindhoven, The Netherlands
2021 Sept - Milan Design Week / Alcova - Milan, Italy
2020 Mar - Textiel Lab / Textiel Museum Tilburg - Tilburg, The Netherlands
2020 Mar - Permanent Collection of the Zilvermuseum - Schoonhoven, The Netherlands
2020 Feb - OBJECT Rotterdam - Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2019 Nov - Dutch Design Week with Make Material Sense - Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Education