Contributions Festival Returns to Paris, Tuning Design to New Rhythms
For its second edition, Anna Caradeuc and Élise Daunay turn Paris into a meeting ground for designers, artists, and musicians whose collaborations reveal parallels between object and sound
Launching a design fair from scratch is no small feat, yet Anna Caradeuc did just that when she staged Contributions during Paris Art Week in 2023. Rooted in a collective spirit that deliberately sidestepped the corporate gloss of established fairs, the festival gave under-the-radar talents a platform for new work in improvised, architecturally charged settings across Paris—all free and open to the public. It was a Herculean effort, so the French-Italian consultant took the following year to rest, recalibrate, and consider how to revive Contributions with the same conviction and spark that made its debut resonate so deeply.
Two years later, Contributions returns with a more assured voice yet the same independent energy. Caradeuc has since formalized the project as a nonprofit with fellow consultant Élise Daunay and adopted a biennial rhythm that favors reflection over churn. The festival’s second edition, running October 20–24 again during Paris Art Week, continues its cross-disciplinary collaborations—but this time, sound now runs through nearly every part.
“Music has always been a through-line in our lives,” Caradeuc says of her alignment with Daunay. “Our shared passion for it was completely serendipitous, something we discovered along the way as we got to know each other, often nerding out over the same albums or realizing we’d been at the same concerts. When we’re not talking about design, chances are we’re talking about music. It remains the art form that gives us the widest range of emotions.” Having started her career in the Pacific Northwest music scene, Caradeuc soon recognized how musicians and designers share a similar process. “There’s the same search for rhythm, emotion, and form, the same struggles and joys. We had a feeling these worlds would find common ground, and we were curious to see what might happen when they met.”
The festival’s five site-specific installations span the city, pairing designers, artists and musicians in unexpected ways. Interior designer Emily Thurman, who splits time between Salt Lake City and New York, is making her Paris debut at Atelier Alterio, the former live-work space of Argentine painter Ruben Alterio, which is opening its doors to the public for the first time. Inside, she unveils rocking chairs strung with a constellation of bells by Parisian jeweler Zoé Mohm, accompanied by a drifting soundtrack from Kansas City musician Kevin Morby. To create the piece, Thurman mailed Morby three bells that he wove into the composition, their harmonies vibrating alongside piano and echoing the cacophonous soundtrack of Paris itself.
At Lucid Interval, nestled in the heart of the Marais, Normandy-based Pauline Esparon is presenting ethereal parchment works rooted in centuries-old Pakistani traditions alongside Juliette Teste’s evocative ceramics and a psychedelic-tinged score by Michelle Blades. At the cultural center Union de la Jeunesse Internationale, a historic building that once housed the iconic Tati department store, Lagos-based Nifemi Marcus-Bello is debuting an iteration of his M2 Shelf, integrated with speakers from French audio brand La Boîte Concept, that recalls the living-room furniture from his childhood. Installed in a domestic setting complete with pew-like benches fashioned by Thomas Morineau Barthelemy, his pieces will be accompanied by Brazilian musician Rodrigo Amarante’s textural rhythms.
Elsewhere, scenography conceived by Jeanne Tresvaux du Fraval sets Sylvia Corrette’s striking 1990 series Roxanne, Princesse des Djinns amid aura-like drawings by Luna Paiva and pendants by Valerie Name Bolaño. A hypnotic soundscape composed by guitarist Adrian Edeline evokes the alluring grandeur of Parisian nightlife in the 1980s and ‘90s. Rounding out the program, Italian musician Andrea Laszlo De Simone debuts his audiovisual work Una Lunghissima Ombra—a companion to his new album—hosted by dealer Harold Mollet in micro-cinema Out of the Blue and a convivial bar inspired by cult collective Metals Milano. Original pieces from the Milanese institution by James Irvine, Sergio Calatroni, and George Sowden will be on view. Visitors are welcome to sit, listen, and share a glass of wine—or ombretta (“little shadow”) as it’s called in Venice—to De Simone’s sonic meditations.
Daunay describes the pairings as instinctive and organic. “We approached it less as a curatorial exercise and more as intuitive matchmaking—connecting people whose practices share a certain sensibility or emotional temperature,” she says. “We wanted each collaboration to generate friction or harmony in unexpected ways, to allow something unplanned to happen.”
Though its framework has evolved, the festival’s ethos remains constant. “The first edition was very instinctive, almost impulsive,” Caradeuc explains. “This time, there’s a clearer sense of identity. We understand what Contributions is, and what it isn’t: it’s not about scale or commerce, but about experimentation and connection.” That philosophy continues to draw an expanding community around the festival. Supported by partners such as USM Modular Furniture and La Boîte concept, Contributions operates as an open invitation for designers to share ideas and audiences to experience them differently. The two founders are reveling in their creative independence and decision to build a festival from scratch. “At our core,” Caradeuc says, “we still carry that same sense of freedom, discovery, and fearless DIY attitude.”