Jean-Marc Bullet
About the Resident
French Resident
April 1 – June 1, 2024
Industrial Designer
Design resident Jean-Marc Bullet is an industrial design-artist based in Martinique. He worked to encourage populations using design as an innovation, socializing tool. So that I taught design both for art school student but also for entrepreneurs and government agent.
Presented in partnership with Villa Albertine and ENSCI– Les Ateliers. Supported by the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation
Jean-Marc developed for many years his work about how design can help people to create social and cultural bonds in their territory: how can design question our ecological relationships with our environment in a post-colonial area? From those issues he creates devices with inhabitants not firstly to find solutions but to engage discussions and new projects between them.
Bullet graduated from the Haute Ecole des arts du Rhin ( HEAR ) to Strasbourg in 2005, and the “French national institute for advanced studies in industrial design” (ENSCI Les Ateliers) to Paris in 2007. He was recently awarded from “Mondes Nouveaux” France art program in 2021 for his project “ Presqu’une île” which invite people to use all their senses to understand ecological and social issue of the mangrove.
“My latest project, an open-air exhibition entitled Presqu’une île, invites the public to discover a mangrove through a multisensory experience punctuated by what I call “sense capsules.” For several years now, I have drawn from this creative approach rooted in geography and humankind’s ties to nature to question how my Afro-Caribbean identity informs my craft.”
Jean-Marc Bullet worked in China for some years, in marble and solar industries, trying to decrease ecological footprint of companies. He was awarded by a German design award for Nestot, a compost bin project in 2019. Last year, he collaborates with CB2, an American furniture design company to create a range of product inspired by the history of Caribbean diaspora.
Jean-Marc’s Experience
How did your interactions with designers from the African diaspora in NYC influence your understanding of design and its cultural implications?
JM: Most designers from African diaspora are really aware about the underrepresentation of black folks in design. Anyway their work does not exclusively talk about these issues but also questions gender, ecological and social issues. They are really involved in the city life.
Can you name one thing, person, place, or experience that profoundly inspired you or provided a new perspective on your work and practice?
JM: Meeting the artist NYUGEN, he worked on black diaspora representation in American society and immigration issues. I visited his studio. I was impressed by how deep he was involved in his work.
