Respiration - IMA Paris

“Respiration” was a retrospective of my work presented at the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) Museum in Paris, following an invitation from the museum to integrate my work with its collections.

A breath returns to the existence of beings and things. The idea of respiration is in rupture with that of inspiration. Respiration at once invokes intimacy and the importance of the work. Design then engages the objects that surround us, take over, persist, and often out survive us.

Eternal objects: Karen Chekerdjian's gutsy forms at L'Institut du Monde Arabe

While the Beirut-based designer agrees that the show offers a new reading of her creations, she resists the leap that this automatically makes them museum-worthy.

As Karen Chekerdjian began planning her solo show, 'Respiration', on now at L'Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, she realised that good design possesses a level of significance only discernible over time.

Wallpaper, DESIGN / 9 JUN 2016 / BY AMY VERNER

Le mobilier épuré de Karen Chekerdjian

Deux expositions parisiennes, l’une en galerie, l’autre à l’Institut du monde arabe, consacrent le travail de cette artiste libanaise. Karen Chekerdjian a jeté ses créations comme des petits cailloux à travers les collections du Musée de l’Institut du monde arabe (IMA)

LE MONDE | 10.06.2016 à 12h29 | Par Véronique Lorelle (/journaliste/veronique-lorelle/)

Lebanese designer brings traditional materials into the modern age

Karen Chekerdjian looks at gap between Arab and Western cultures

The designer Karen Chekerdjian is known in her native Lebanon for modernist objects made with traditional materials and techniques. Now, two solo exhibitions in Paris — at the Institut du Monde Arabe and at the private Dutko Gallery — offer a close look at an artist addressing the divide between art and function, and also the wider gap between Western and Arab cultures.

BY NAZANIN LANKARANI, New York times