It measures 13.40 meters long and is called Medula: the new table of the Council of Ministers was presented this Wednesday at the Elysée Palace to Emmanuel Macron after being designed by design students and manufactured by French companies.
The Head of State took advantage of this event to launch a “call for the mobilization” of “artists and creators” to be “proposal and training forces” that allow France to get out of the current difficult moment, marked by “a kind of sadness” . “We need you (…) Thank you for inventing and reinventing things”, declared Emmanuel Macron addressing the representatives of the third edition of the France Design Weekinvited to the Elysee with his wife Brigitte and the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak.
“Beautiful and functional”
The new table, “at the same time beautiful and functional”, according to the Head of State, was premiered in the morning on the occasion of the traditional Council of Ministers this Wednesday morning in the Murat room. Until then, the table of the Council of Ministers had never been designed by designers: purely functional and disassembled every week, it was made up of boards placed on trestles and covered “with a horrible felt”, according to the president.
Light in color, the Medulla table (“medulla” in Latin) is made up of 20 rectangular extensions that fit together, allowing its length to be adapted to the number of participants in the meeting. According to its designers, it was designed “as a set of vertebrae”, modules lined with floating concrete that can be quickly assembled and disassembled and then transported in the Elysée elevators.
11 companies involved
Eleven artisan companies, located in various regions, participated in its elaboration. Its four student designers, graduates of the National School of Applied Arts and Crafts (Ensaama), were selected after a contest launched in 2019 by Mobilier Nacional and open to students from five establishments that offer training in design.
Inaugurated as Heritage Days approach this weekend, this kit marks a new stage in the modernization of the Elysée Palace launched by the Macron couple since 2017 and marked in particular by the renovation of the town hall. The Elysée is “a place that we constantly try to reinvent” by relying “on French know-how”, summarized Emmanuel Macron.
Source: BFM TV
