The woven perspectives of de Gaspard Fleury-Dugy

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Gaspard Fleury-Dugy’s woven perspectives at the Galerie Chevalier Parsua:
Designer Gaspard Fleury-Dugy presents Continuum, a collection of rugs, one of which is on display at the Chevalier Parsua gallery until 18 April. A new realm of stylistic and colouristic exploration for the designer, who first made a name for himself with his three-dimensional objects. When changing dimensions, it’s best not to lose the thread. Spotted for his knitted vases in 2024 and his series inspired by the world of totems and columns the following year, Gaspard Fleury-Dugy has exhibited in Milan, Eindhoven and Stockholm. But it is in Paris, his city of residence and experimentation, that he unveils Continuum, his first collection of rugs. After studying at the École Dupperé and then at the Swedish School of Textiles, this new category could have been a fresh start, but it ultimately appears as an extension of his previous work. A surprising choice, yet one that is by no means disjointed. “There is a clear logical progression between my drawings, my models, the various objects in the exhibition and the rugs. Indeed, I come from a world where pattern has always held a certain allure. But what interests me are the leaps between 2D and 3D; between flat surfaces and volumes,” explains the designer. It is, in fact, this idea that led him to name the exhibition, on display at the Galerie Chevalier Parsua until 18 April, ‘Rounding the Corners’.

Dressing the space:
Specialising in wall textiles for the Chevalier section and rugs in collaboration with the publisher Parsua, the gallery features wall hangings and floor coverings. Two distinct environments separated by an empty space. “When the collaboration with the gallery began, I was keen to draw up the rug designs. I arrived with lots of proposals, which we spread out all over the floor. At the same time, I realised that the corners of this white, linear space were left bare. I wondered how to remedy this. The answer was to transpose the perspectives of the space onto the rugs.” A highly geometric and abstract approach to architecture that led the designer to work in a less conventional manner than usual. “For a textile designer, the bread and butter is usually creating repeating patterns, that is, patterns that repeat endlessly. Here, the novelty for me was to create a placed composition that could be viewed from all sides. This is what is known as a unique, placed pattern,” explains the designer, who is also the exhibition’s curator and to whom we owe the selection of African art and the photographs by Georges Rousse, whose anamorphoses interact naturally with the rugs.

A rather different visual identity:
Usually recognisable by his brightly coloured, sometimes fluorescent, polymer threads – reminiscent of the world of sportswear – Gaspard Fleury-Dugy has this time opted for deeper, more subdued colours. This was a constraint rather than a choice, dictated by the Parsua range. “The rugs are woven in Iran using wool dyed with natural dyes. So I had to think differently, and as I wasn’t very familiar with these colours, I played with contrasts.” A choice that creates a certain vibrancy, further enhanced by the technique. “If we take the example of vases, when I work on them on the computer, one pixel corresponds to one stitch. Here, the technique is different. One knot corresponds to a dot of colour, and the artisanal method creates a slight texture. One can see a sort of dialogue with the previous projects on display until 9 May at the Pavillon Vendôme in Clichy. ” More than a new object, it is above all a variation on his usual work, entrusted for the first time to other hands, that the designer invites us to discover. A link between idea and gesture, firmly knotted throughout the year of work during which Continuum was woven.

Exhibition: ‘Smoothing the Edges’, at the Chevalier Parsua Gallery, 41 Rue de Seine, 75006 Paris, until 18 April.