About – Studio Alexandre Humbert

As designers we are storytellers, we are not designing chairs but ways of sitting.

Alexandre Humbert (1989, FR) is a conceptual designer and filmmaker who writes, directs and constructs Cinematographic Objects.

He graduated with honors from ESAD Reims (FR) in 2011 and from the Contextual Design Master department of Design Academy Eindhoven (NL) in 2013. He has since collaborated with a large number of designers, artists, architects and cultural institutions to poetically stage objects, gestures and contexts through installations, fictions, documentaries and experimental films.

From 2014 to 2016, he trained in various production techniques and developed his critical sense of the image through the production of several short formats. His unique approach received recognition in 2017 with the launch of the film series Object Interview, 19 episodes involving 103 contributors in Europe in which 31 objects discuss seemingly innocuous topics: fishing, psychoanalysis, marriage, insomnia... By giving these objects a voice, his films emphasize the emotional, verbal and non-verbal interaction that exists with all the objects that surround us, whatever their form.

He was then invited to explore the narrative potential of objects in a variety of contexts, including Design Museum Gent (BE), Musée d'Art Moderne du Luxembourg (LU) in 2018, Jerusalem Design Week (IL), Schloss Hollenegg for Design (AU) and Guangzhou Museum of Art (CHN) in 2019. In the same year, he co-curated the exhibition "The Object is Absent" at MU Art Space, which was nominated for the Dutch Design Award 2020 and he also directed the fiction film Sleeping Beauties, shot at Burj al Babas in Turkey, in which he links architecture to its pictorial representation in a context where screens continue to multiply.

In 2020, after completing his film Les Impatients, shot during the first lockdown, he was offered a a one-year residency at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (FR) to follow the life of the museum through its collections and exhibitions, extracting contextual poetic narratives.

The designer-cinematographer directed The object becomes in 2021, following the attitudes, words and gestures of nine protagonists of circular design, resource regeneration in Belgium. The film premiered at Palazzo Anteo Cinema during Salone Del Mobile.

Awarded with the Mondes Nouveaux Grant from the French Ministry of Culture in 2022, he completed the production of his first experimental feature-length documentary, D'un moment à l'autre, which follows the production process of 35 artists across France and premiered in 2024. His latest film, Apagada, shot in the Brazilian Amazon and co-directed with Belgian design studio Unfold, has just received the Henry van de Velde Award in Belgium and an honourable mention at MDFF 24.

His work has been exhibited and screened internationally and is part of the collections of Design Museum Gent (BE), Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris (FR) and MUDAM Luxembourg (LU). Alongside his practice, he teaches film construction at ENSCI Les Ateliers (FR) and the Design Academy Eindhoven (NL), and lectures on the subject at numerous other schools.

Awards & Residencies

Henry van de Velde Gold Award, BE
2024
Honourable Mention Milano Design Film Festival, IT
2024
Granted Project Mondes Nouveaux, FR
2022
Granted Project Belgium is Design, BE
2021
Carte Blanche MAD Paris, FR
2020
Nominated Dutch Design Awards, NL
2020
Made In Program Zagreb, HR
2019
Schloss Hollenegg for Design, AU
2019
Nominated Jan Lucassen Award, NL
2019
Guangzhou Museum of Art, CHN
2018
Jerusalem Design Week, IL
2018
MUDAM Luxembourg, LU
2014
Great Expectations Award, NL
2013

Teaching

Design Academy Eindhoven, NL
ENSCI Les Ateliers, FR
Head Genève, CH
Ecole Camondo, FR
Royal Academy of Art The Hague, NL
IED Torino, IT
ESAC Cambrai, FR
The Berlin University of the Arts, DE
HDK Göteborg, SE

Current

Exhibitions

2024

Collectible
Brussels, BE
Short Way International Short Film Festival
São Paulo, BR
Christophe Gevers, L'architecture du détail
Design Museum Brussels, BE
Fórum Artes e Ofícios
Espaço Criar Odemira, PT
The hand remembers
Isetan Tokyo, JP
iPress Gent
KASK Cinema, BE
Milano Design Film Festival 11
Milan, IT
Festival International Film documentaire Amazonie Caraïbes
Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, GY
Resources for a Future
Tallinn Architecture Biennale, EE

2023

Lot 8
Alcova Milan, IT
Mondes Nouveaux
Beaux Arts de Paris, FR
Bleu à Tisser
Ecomusée de l'Avesnois, FR
Lot 8
LUMA Arles, FR
The object becomes
Montevideo Marseille, FR
Hybrid Tales for Hybrid Times
MU Art Space, NL
Bleu à Tisser
Musée de l'Hospice Comtesse, FR

2022

Millenium Film Festival
Bruxelles, BE
Brussels Design September
Cinema Flagey, BE
Edit Napoli
Cloister Foundation, IT
The Living Room
Dopo Space Milan, IT
"Union"
Europe, EU
L'appel de la forêt
Fondation Pernod Ricard, FR
Mécanique de la matière
Fondation Pernod Ricard, FR
Design Fest
Gent, BE
Building a bright future
MAD Bruxelles, BE
Intergenerational Graduation Show
Milan, IT
Centre Wallonie Bruxelles
Paris, FR
Design Week Novi Sad
Serbia, CS
AFFR
Washington, US

2021

The object becomes
Anteo Palazzo del Cinema, IT
La camera et l'objet
France Design Week, FR
Un printemps Incertain
MAD Paris, FR
Milano Design Film FEstival 2021
Milan, IT
Rigolarium
MUDAC Lausanne, CH
AFFR
Vancouver, CN
Lithuanian Space Agency
Venice Architecture Biennial, IT
A Combmaker's Tale
Z33 Hasselt, BE

2020

Human Pyramid 2079
Allard Pierson Museum, NL
World Economic Forum
Davos, CH
The Rug
Host of Imaginations, Eindhoven, NL
MAAT Mode
MAAT Lisbon, PT
Milano Design Film Festival 2020
Milan, IT
Made IN
Museum of Architecture & Design Ljubljana, SI
MADE IN: Crafts — Design Narratives
Museum of Arts & Crafts (MUO) Zagreb, HR
MADE IN: Crafts — Design Narratives
Museum of Science and Technology Belgrade, RS
Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam
Rotterdam, NL
Object Rotterdam
Rotterdam, NL
Made IN
Werkraum Bregenzerwald, Andelsbuch

2019

A farewell to Object Interview
Atelier Mendini, IT
Memento Mons
BAM Mons, BE
Dead Darlings Auction
Het Nieuwe Insituut, NL
Object Interview #13
Hotel Rosa Grand Milano, IT
Milano Design Film Festival
Milan, IT
The Object is Absent
MU Art Space, NL
Craft Film Festival
Picturehouse Central London, UK
thonik: Why we Design
Power Station of Art, Shangai, CHN
Ad Mensam
Schloss Hollenegg for Design, AT
Geo-Design: Junk
Van Abbe Museum, NL

2018

LUMA Days
Atelier LUMA, FR
Collectible
Brussels, BE
Interstices
Centre National de la Danse, FR
White Horse, Twin Horse
De Brakke Grond, NL
Object Stories
Design Museum Gent, BE
Lecture with Abäke
Frac Grand Large, FR
Guangzhou Triennial
Guangzhou Museum of Art, CHN
Jerusalem Design Week
Hansen House, IL
Thursday Night Live
Het Nieuwe Insituut, NL
Invisible Film Festival
Istanbul, TR
Istanbul Design Biennale
Istanbul, TR
Bump Festival
Kortrijk City Theatre, BE
Milano Design Film Festival
Milan, IT
Beyond the New
MUDAM, LU
Supergreen Sunday
MUDAM, LU
Talk Radio Day
MUDAM, LU
Abecedarium
Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris, FR

2017

LUMA Days
Atelier LUMA, FR
Sectie C
Dutch Design Week, NL
The Arena
Dutch Design Week, NL
Du Graand Large au Fraac
Frac Grand Large, FR
Ideas City
New York, USA
#TVClerici
Palazzo Clerici, Salone Del Mobile, IT
Studio ZZM
ZuiderzeeMuseum, NL

Publications

Selected collaborations

Ronan Bouroullec, Grand Palais, MacGuffin, Unfold Studio, Fondation Luma Arles, Centre National de la Danse, BC architects & studies, Assemble, Åbäke, Gramme, CID Grand Hornu, Institut Français, Design Museum Brussels, Giovanna Massoni, Michele de Lucchi, Studio Makkink & Bey, Martino Gamper, Samy Rio, Atelier Senzu, Pinaffo Pluvinage, Arnaud Pujol, Studio Brynjar & Veronika, Belgium is Design, Alla Carta Studio, among others.