CREATIVE SMALLTALK

Bodil Blain catches up over a coffee with French-swedish artist and furniture maker Ingrid Donat

BB: Do you drink coffee?

ID: Yes. Every morning I like to prepare myself a Swedish breakfast and have it in front of the news.

Do you feel Swedish, French or both?

I would say I am a mix. I have origins from Île de la Réunion, from my father, and Sweden, from my mother. My path crossed so many different influences. I guess I’m somewhere in between all these influences.

How do ideas come to you?

I feed myself with what I see, then I put it down on a neutral medium, like paper or wax, and from there something graphic happens.

Who or what is your biggest influence?

My influences are diverse. Primitive art and the origin of the arts, as well as art deco and Nordic inspirations, too. But I am also influenced by art in a larger way, by artists like Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. There is a brutalist efficacy that mixes strength and complexity.

Tell me a little bit about your relationship with Swiss sculptor and designer Diego Giacometti?

He was not exactly my mentor, he was more my friend. He was the one who encouraged me to start doing my own pieces. One day I went to his studio. I wanted to buy a console from him for a gift. He told me, ‘Do it yourself ’. He said that, from that moment on, he would not sell me his pieces anymore.

What are you currently working on?

I have been working on a project for Peter Marino for La Samaritaine in Paris, which is part of the Cheval Blanc hotel group. Everything is in production and should be ready sometime soon.

I am also working on a new collection of commodes. I am currently in the process of reworking the drawings with the technical team.

Which is your favourite work?

Each work is the expression of a particular feeling that have I felt at some point in my life. For example, ‘Commode Skarabée’, which was shown at TEFAF Maastricht 2020, is my interpretation of an insect, the beetle, that I have always been fascinated with because of its history and because of its shape.

Bodil Blain is the founder of Cru Kafe