Booklet
© 2014, Paulin, Paulin, Paulin.
The déclive 1966 was pioneering and visionary: it prefigured the issues that designers are grappling with today, in the 1960s.
The succession of curving foam seating bars interlinking on an articulated metal frame – the seat’s backbone – encapsulates the fundamentals underlying modernity: it is modular, accommodates any mood, fits any space, elicits a collective spirit, nurtures a sharing attitude, and is distinctly well balanced.
The Déclive 1966 is in a class by itself, hovering between a work of art and piece of furniture. Its sensual silhouette contrasts with its precisely crafted mechanisms, and it captures its creator’s quest: “I am what you could call a para-artist. Someone somewhere between the artistic and the technical spheres. And this only works if it excels in both” Pierre Paulin enjoyed saying.
It was never mass-produced but has been in the Centre Pompidou Musée National d’Art Moderne’s permanent collection since 2003, and has grown into an icon over the years. This unquestionably seminal piece was avant-garde in its day, and is now being produced for the first time, in a limited edition.
