Cité du design / Exhibition Total Recall
Total Recall offers visitors of the Cité du design a plunge into the complex in-between period that separates the end of studies from the beginning of so-called professional life. In an original scenography, the exhibition brings together hundreds of objects from the singular universes of young artists and designers who graduated from Esadse. The promise of a “total memory” which is also a composite vision of the future.
What happens in the time between the study experience and life after school? The exhibition Total Recall examines this dizzying gap, based on a selection of 38 diplomas from students who graduated from the École supérieure d’art et design de Saint-Étienne in June 2022, presented in a new exhibition format.
Until now, the work of the School’s graduates has been showcased each year as part of an installation. After a first experience working with curators in 2022, on the occasion of the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne, we have chosen to make this event a fully-fledged exhibition, supported by the Cité du design. Total Recall launches this new format with vigour, taking visitors into the heart of a sensitive experience between past, present and future.
– Éric Jourdan, Director of the Esadse
Total Recall is the title of a 1990 science fiction film adapted from a short story by Philip K. Dick, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (translated in French as Souvenir à vendre). The fiction begins with a company that markets personal memories by implanting them in the memories of its customers. The title of the exhibition thus refers to the idea of a collective memory, a possible transaction of memories, or memories by empathy.
More Information: citedudesign.com/en/a/total-recall-2591