Demain c’est loin

The ESADSE (Saint-Etienne Higher School of Art and Design) constitutes one of the strong elements in the attractiveness of the Saint-Etienne district, in France. The school and the Cité du Design are both based on yhe site of the old Manufacture d'Armes and since 2010 they have formed an EPCC (public institution for cultural cooperation). It was also responsible for launching the International Design Biennial. The school, which is fed by an ecosystem that is unique on the art and design school landscape, has brought its considerable resources to the project, both in terms of what it contributes to the production and the leverage it can bring to bear across the district in terms of partnerships and knowledge development. The graduates presented here reflect this rich tapestry and the exacting demands of their training. More than ever their final projects are conceived across a very wide range of themes in both art and design. What unites them, on the other hand, is the critical dimension of the different approaches. There is also a certain fondness for missing spaces, dematerialised forms, reversals, either in the media used, or conceptually... This is probably due to a generational effect reinforced by the personalities of the artists and designers that we train and who come from further and further afield to study at the ESADSE.