recto verso

The exhibition

A practice in the making

The recto verso exhibition invites the public to delve into the heart of emerging art and design from the Saint-Étienne School of Art and Design. Presented at La Platine, this exhibition brings together projects from two graduating cohorts and offers an immersive experience of their creative worlds, their research and their commitments. Conceived as a space to be explored, recto verso does not merely display finished objects: it reveals the creative processes, experiments, detours and intuitions that shape an emerging practice. An invitation to discover design and contemporary art on a human scale, in all their richness and diversity.

A design by ppdesigner

Conceived by ppdesigner, the recto verso exhibition is the result of a resolutely collective approach. Bringing together seven designers from Ésad Saint-Étienne, this collective is responsible for the entire project — from curation to exhibition design, including the graphic identity — and has created a coherent, generous and experimental exhibition. Through this framework, ppdesigner orchestrates an encounter between the projects of the 2024 and 2025 graduates: far from being presented in isolation, the works engage in dialogue with one another and form a shared narrative, offering a vibrant vision of design and art. Conceived as a living, interactive space, recto verso is experienced as much through the eye as through direct engagement. Interactive objects, performances and installations punctuate the programme.

A two-part journey: the front and the back

The exhibition’s title directly echoes its spatial layout. The exhibition unfolds in two complementary parts.The front section presents the main exhibition, comprising scenes and dioramas that showcase the final-year projects: objects, videos, installations, performances and hybrid forms. The reverse, meanwhile, reveals what goes on behind the scenes. Exposed structures, drawings, photographs, archives and preparatory work reveal the stages leading up to the degree: research, trials, trial and error, but also moments of student life. This second section affirms that the degree is not an end in itself, but a stage in a constantly evolving creative process.

About ppdesigner

Founded in 2025, the ppdesigner collective brings together Thomas Dutoit, Emma Faury-Graziani, Manon Freulon, Félix Fritz, Mathilde Garcia (Very Good Design), Perrine Kamoun and Louis Chevalier. All seven designers are graduates of the École Supérieure d’Art et Design de Saint-Étienne. Their varied practices – ranging from graphic design to furniture design and materials research – come together in exhibition projects. Through their past and future work, they seek to make exhibitions accessible where designers and contemporary artists from different generations and diverse backgrounds come together. They devise open and free-flowing exhibition settings with the aim of creating unexpected connections between pieces that originally had no link. Far from the isolated object, placed on a pedestal, they propose creating ensembles in the form of dioramas. Thus, the works of designers and artists, brought together, tell stories and evoke imaginations, to be contemplated or encountered in everyday life.

Web site ppdesigner

recto verso
Exhibition of the 2024 and 2025 graduates of Ésad Saint-Étienne

29 April – 4 October 2026
Opening on 28 April 2026

Exhibition design: ppdesigner collective
Curated by: ppdesigner collective and Éric Jourdan

La Platine, Cité du design
3 rue Javelin Pagnon
42000 Saint-Étienne

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