Services Généraux Reveals Maison, A “Manifesto House” Where All Is Not As It Seems

To further confuse the division between real and unreal are the images and videos of the building itself. ‘Maison’ is set amongst a landscape of rolling hills and unkempt fields; its windows reflect the sunrise and sunset, and its walls are settled into a space that once held an old farmhouse. Inside, the spacious three bedroom house is populated by familiar design objects that give the understated interior a sumptuous edge. Look closely, and you will spy Faye Toogood’s ‘Roly Poly Chair’, Soft Baroque’s ‘Lamp/Vase’, the deep black ‘Curial’ chair by Rick Owens and Michèle Lamy, throw rugs by M/M for Byredo, lamps by Max Lamb, paintings by Ned Karlovich, Aesop in the bathroom and flower arrangements by Parisian florists Debeaulieu on the dining table. So where then does digital end and reality begin?

Materially real and unreal, it seems that once again Services Généraux has succeeded in the art of disguise. In the postface of the publication, Dan Thawley notes that the twist of ‘Maison’ lies in its very intangibility as a space. “Peering past the grain of twilight, both still and moving images gently betray the overarching truth of the project’s entirely digital reality”, he writes. It is precisely this unreal nature that allows ‘Maison’ to morph from “dreamlike” into actual dream: An evanescent space, not only for Antoine and Valentin, but for all those who catch a glimpse inside.