Paris Design Week 2025: "577 chaises: l'hémicycle citoyen", the installation at the Archives nationales

Every autumn, Paris Design Week transforms the capital into an urban festival of design, with free, interactive installations scattered across emblematic locations: the courtyard of the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, theHôtel de Sully, private mansions in the Marais district and the historic library of the city of Paris. This year, the courtyard of the Archives nationales, also known as theHôtel de Soubise, is getting in on the act with 577 chairs: the hemicycle citoyen.

After the Eau Fraîche fragrance installation by Lucas Huillet and Alexandre Helwani in 2024, designers Claire Renard and Jean-Sébastien Blanc, co-founders of 5.5, take their place with a monumental work. In collaboration with the Festival du Monde and Leboncoin, they bring to life 577 reused chairs, each unique and marked with a word that questions democracy, echoing the 577 seats of the French National Assembly. Here, each seat becomes a voice, each seat a point of view: a hemicycle where we sit... and think.

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The installation will be on view from September 4 to 13 for Paris Design Week, then during the Journées du Patrimoine 2025 and the Festival du Monde, from September 18 to 21. A free tour of the Marais district, where design engages and questions, while remaining accessible to all.

And to extend the experience, each chair will be auctioned on Drouot.com from September 4 to 21.