Maison&Objet January inspiration theme 2025: Sur/Reality, new creative horizons
With the inspirational theme Sur/Reality, Maison&Objet and Peclers Paris are exploring, in January, the prolific vitality of a new Surrealism. It feeds on fantasy, distortion, randomness, humour and poetry to construct a narrative of new creative landscapes and of productions that are as surprising as they are desirable. In a complex and chaotic world, these daydreams are alternative realities that, through their originality, quirkiness and inventiveness, offer other realities that are escapist and often jubilant. These seditious side-steps put our daily lives on hold.
At the show, this trend takes shape in unexpected objects and dreamlike settings that invite us to let go, and addresses consumers’ newfound appetite for the strange and the surprising.
From surrealism to Sur/Reality
The Surrealist movement was born 100 years ago. A century later, it remains a powerful inspiration and a driving force for creativity. While the theme pays tribute to the artistic legacy of such illustrious names as Magritte and Dali via particular aesthetic codes that have become universal, it is firmly rooted in the contemporary world.
Sur/Reality highlights the lively topicality of Surrealism’s creative processes. The unreal and the absurd prove to be incredible stage-design tools, revealing dreamlike worlds that appeal more to the emotions and the unconscious than to reason.
“We wanted to take a much more contemporary approach to Surrealism by interrogating its explosion into multiple modes of expression and looking far beyond the centenary celebrations. This capacity to reintroduce a fantastic element and shake up the established order is an extremely rich and fertile starting point for imagining new forms of reality, and Sur/Reality reveals new readings of this universe”, explain Charlotte Cazals and Brune Ouakrat of Peclers Paris.
This neo-Surrealism freely conjures up the false and the bizarre, and invites us to play with the iterative properties of digital and the infinite random digressions made possible by AI, which are not unrelated to automatic writing nor to the exquisite corpses produced by André Breton’s disciples. Questioning reality and arousing curiosity through a form of abnormality invites us to reconnect with our instinctive creativity. The ways in which the fantastic can be brought to life in a sometimes too-firmly established order open up rich and fertile creative fields.
Distorting reality in order to reinvent it
In 2023, Yorgos Lánthimos’s film Poor Things won a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was an unexpected hit with the public. “His strong, fantastic aesthetic codes are rooted in a distorted reality that is both strangely familiar and deliciously disturbing. This distortion is a lasting creative springboard that gives rise to seductive, extraordinary and joyful realities, less circumscribed by the codes of society”, explains Peclers Paris.
In the age of mini Bluetooth speakers, the French company LiveHorn combines the best of technology with old forms to produce objects that are as high-tech as they are extravagant. Their giant horns, reminiscent of the old phonographs, make a spectacular statement about their function: producing good sound.
The abnormal and the strange open up the field of discovery
Philippe Starck, a qualified pataphysicist, was able to demonstrate the stimulating virtues of pataphysics, the “science of imaginary solutions” admired by the Surrealists, at an exhibition in Paris. What if the Seine were a lake? The outlandish question raised by the designer generates inspiring urban reinventions. By falsifying reality, bringing opposites together and evading the laws of logic, new formal languages are born that provoke delightful disorder.
Italian brand Seletti cultivates provocation, distils poetry and plays with the codes of Surrealism in its creations. And the Attic-Window Lamp, in the shape of a window looking onto a blue sky, is clearly a nod to René Magritte, an influential figure in Surrealism.
Sur/Reality by François Delclaux
“Surrealism immediately makes me think of Magritte, who conjures up a host of familiar images. Today, there is a clear link with a young contemporary art scene, particularly with the resurgence of drawing. I see the Surrealist spirit still present in this aesthetic of ‘collage’, a principle of accumulation, superimposition and telescoping. If I were to try to formalise this theme, I’d think of the eye, found in Magritte, Dali, Bataille and Man Ray. This eye, which provides a link between reality, its representation and our psychoanalytical ‘self’, seems to me to be once again a central, unifying figure.”
Sur/Realism and digital
In the 21st century, how can we re-examine automatic writing and dreaming through the prism of new technologies? This “dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason,” so dear to the Surrealists, is reminiscent of the exploratory uses of software such as Midjourney, where thousands of images collide, opening up unexpected creative possibilities. This new form of automatic writing gives rise to new points of reference that are created by means of digital technology, but which will enable us to re-examine our real-life constructions. The creations of artist and graphic designer Pilar Zeta emerge from the virtual worlds she designs and establish themselves in the reality of our homes.
Poetry enters the house
With Sur/Reality, objects add spice to the mundane. When poetic, they invite us to daydream, and when mischievous they are amazingly effective mood lifters. There’s a kind of impromptu freedom in the design process. The objects break free from normative rationality, shifting away from the pragmatic injunctions of technology and instead supporting a need for daydreaming and escapism. They are a link between the ordinary and the fantastic. Bordallo Pinheiro’s ceramics, which take the form of cabbages, walnuts or papayas, turn contents into containers. The cocktail glasses of &Klevering have stems that are distorted even before the drink itself disturbs the senses. And for Jonathan Adler, clouds become earthbound seats.
The Malabar brand works with Portuguese craftsmen to create artistically-inspired furniture and objects. Surrealism is a part of its references and creations. A soft chaise longue resting on a precious-metal parallelepiped evokes Dali. Mirrors distort into subtle curves or sophisticated convolutions.
Faye Toogood, designer of the year
This is not a “surreality” but a very real presence: Faye Toogood has been named Designer of the Year 2025 by Maison&Objet. The British designer strives to “unite the artistic with the everyday so as to make the landscape of our lives less ordinary,” with eclectic productions for the worlds of design and fashion. Landscapes inspired by her rigorous, poetic and avant-garde work, the productions of her studio and her brilliant collaborations with leading publishers of objects and furniture will take on a new form at the January edition of the show.
Surprise and a dreamlike quality in the customer experience
It’s all about creating surprise, and this is often based on unsettling changes of scale, intriguing plays on proportions and amusing absurdities. The new Camper store in London has a giant foot. Le Café Fleurs, Jacquemus’ pop-up store in Seoul, opens like a huge Bambimou bag, the brand’s bestseller.
In Copenhagen, Jaime Hayon has invented a small Surrealist theatre, while the Joann Tan Studio plays with pure surrealist references for the Hermès store windows, combining a shiny mouth, a sculptural nose and fluffy clouds, all floating in space.
Hospitality, a taste for theatricality
In the world of hospitality, Sur/Reality plays not merely on surprise but also on a mix of well-established influences, an arty anti-conformism in which luxury is expressed in the irrational. Turkish brand Kaimakk creates an astonishing universe of deceptive appearances in both its décor and its “futuristic” pastries. A spectacular fountain is a giant showpiece enlivened by fake splashes that appear to be made of sugar candy. At London’s Café Prada, the mouldings and the convolutions of the balustrades clash with a geometric floor resembling a giant black-and-white chessboard. The interplay of shapes and light creates an atmosphere that oscillates between Romanticism and the fantastic.
Julien Sebban designs the new colours of Hospitality
The founder of the Uchronia collective, creator of remarkable new venues and producer of “all-encompassing experiences”, will be bringing his fresh perspective and seasoned expertise from his many projects to the new What’s New? In Hospitality launched in January. Through a selection of products and dedicated scenarios, he will provide an insight into the needs of professionals in the art of entertaining, as well as practical solutions.
Mélanie Leroy, Managing Director of Maison&Objet comments: “Together with Peclers Paris, we are continuing our work both to decipher consumer expectations in an ever-changing context and to identify tangible stylistic trends that will generate new business. Inspiration, curation, and solutions remain the virtuous triad that shapes the interpretation of the theme at the show, through a carefully curated selection of products and innovative scenographies.”
Sur/Reality and its interpretations will be featured in the three What’s New? In Decor, In Retail and In Hospitality. These exclusive interviews with Maison&Objet are all about inspiration. This will be expressed through original stage designs and the careful curation of new products that will make the retail ranges unique, as well as the success of interior design projects. This is the perfect way to support partners, brands, retailers and specifiers in the development of their businesses. Three professions, each with its own dedicated programme.
“As we celebrate the centenary of this total aesthetic movement, Maison&Objet is revealing its influence on contemporary creation in the world of design and decoration. It’s an invitation to explore highly inspiring fantasy and dream worlds, to get away from it all, to daydream and to explore new alternative realities thanks to technologies like AI”, concludes Mélanie Leroy.
Sur/Reality will be a common thread running through the show, staged by Maison&Objet’s curators and accompanied by Talks, and will also permeate the entire Maison&Objet ecosystem, from the selections on the MOM platform to the Paris In The City events. These are just some of the angles through which we can explore the creative and inspiring variations on this unique theme.