Catalogue des objets trouvés

Through the presentation at La Platine of more than 150 objects that have discreetly found their way into our homes, Stefania Di Petrillo pays tribute to everyday design, often anonymous, and highlights the ingenuity and discreet beauty of tools and accessories that have become indispensable and timeless.    

From thumbtacks to Japanese kettles, from pouring spouts to shopping nets, folding beds, water bottles and multi-purpose pliers, the exhibition Catalogue des objets trouvés (Catalogue of Found Objects) invites us to take a fresh look at these everyday items.

Stefania Di Petrillo

A love for well-designed objects

Stefania Di Petrillo is an Italian designer, scenographer and artistic director who graduated from Milan Polytechnic and has been based in Paris for over 25 years. 

Her work is based on reinterpreting objects, materials and techniques to bring them into the modern era. 

Passionate about objects and the process of creating them, she began writing in 2015 a lifestyle column for M, le magazine du Monde, entitled ‘Objets trouvés’ (Found Objects) and later ‘Écologiquement vôtre’ (Yours Ecologically), in which she regularly highlights beautiful, sustainable and functional everyday objects, as part of a long-term reflection on what constitutes a well-designed product.

From 2015 to 2025, Stefania Di Petrillo set out in search of these everyday gems, telling their stories and revealing their richness. In total, more than 200 simple and useful objects, seemingly unremarkable and often designed anonymously, have been described in her column. 

This year, she is bringing this editorial adventure to a close, publishing an anniversary book with Les Arènes publishing house and presenting a large part of the collection of objects she has built up over a decade at La Platine in the Cité du Design (Saint-Étienne). 

These faceless objects, some of them very old, have stood the test of time and societal changes thanks to their practicality and ingenuity. They are the result of clever patents, local traditions or industrial manufacturing. They take us on a journey through hardware shops, bazaars and DIY stores around the world, forming a living archive of our era.

Stefania Di Petrillo’s Website

The world of objects

... and the objects of the world

Kitchen utensils, school accessories, DIY tools from all over the world... The objects Stefania Di Petrillo has unearthed during her travels, in flea markets and hardware stores, have quietly become part of our lives.

Beautiful, simple and useful, they are often environmentally friendly and always reveal intelligence. The exhibition transports us into the intimacy of these objects, which echoes our own. It reveals a unique approach: telling the stories of anonymous, unsigned designs, where the creator’s name has been erased or never existed. This approach, combining materials and gestures, offers a free, light-hearted and curious look at design. Combining technique and poetry, Stefani Di Petrillo reveals, through the simplicity of things, a sensitive and emancipatory design.

In Saint-Étienne, this exhibition finds its natural home: it resonates with the anonymous objects of the famous Manufrance catalogues, which also bear witness to a popular and discreet design, but one that is steeped in history, inscribed in time and in our collective memory.

Throughout the exhibition, in a scenography designed by the curator, quotes from famous designers, artists and thinkers remind us of the power of ordinary design.

The book Histoires d’objets

To mark the end of her column in M, le magazine du Monde, Stefania Di Petrillo published the book Histoires d’objets (Stories of Objects) in September 2025 with Les Arènes publishing house. It features a selection of 120 objects, beautifully photographed by Jonathan Frantini, with whom the designer worked during her ten years writing the column.

Available at La Boutique and on the online store.

Find out more about the book Histoires d’objets

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