Olivier Mourgue

OLIVIER MOURGUE (Paris, 1939) for Airborne.
Pair of "Joker" armchairs, design 1968.
Metal frame.
Cream upholstery.
Measurements: 69 x 61 x 71 cm.

French designer Olivier Mourgue, remembered for his futuristic and innovative designs, designed this iconic armchair in 1968 for the French house Airborne. Its structure is light and essential, based on straight, flat metal uprights and crosspieces. The backrest and seat are formed by two independent cushions.

Olivier Mourgue studied interior design at the Ecole Boulle and furniture design at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, graduating in 1960. Between 1958 and 1961 he worked for Nordiska Kompaniet in Stockholm, and from 1963, with the French manufacturer Airborne International. In this company Mourgue designed his famous Djinn chairs (1965), a symbol of the 60s for appearing in Stanley Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey" in which Kubrick recreated a futuristic Hilton Hotel, located in space, where these chairs appeared. While designing for Airborne International, he also worked as an interior designer designing for Agence d'Architecture Interieure Gautier-Delaye. In 1966, Mourgue established his own design studio in Paris. In his own design studio, Olivier Mourgue created furniture for French companies such as Renault, Prisunic and Mobilier National. Mourgue also designed store interiors and a factory. In 1968 he created a chair which he called "Cubique" and which won the International Design Award (IDA); however, the most fabulous, but still the most unknown, interior design project was for Bayer AG's Visiona. In 1971, Bayer AG hired Olivier Mourgue for the entire interior design of Visiona. Before him, from 1968 to 1972, Bayer AG hired the most talented designers to create a futuristic vision on board a ship in Cologne (Germany) and every year a different designer was hired.