Karl Fournier and Olivier Marty are the founders of Studio KO, a signature in architecture and interior design with a language that fuses the lessons of Modernism and archaic, radical influences into a single whole.
The studio, with offices in Paris and Marrakech, stands out for the global, immersive approach it dedicates to each project. Among their most important realisations: the Musée Yves Saint Laurent in Marrakech, the Chiltern Firehouse hotel in London and the Balmain boutique in Los Angeles.
Today, the two creatives showcase their personal vision and research in The KO Eye, an online gallery (and e-shop) featuring art pieces, objects and furnishings selected to communicate their aesthetic research.
An initiative they explain as follows: «Objects: they have a life of their own of course. It is entirely their own, we cannot take it away from them, at most we can choose to be part of it for a while. Like them, they will be part of ours for a while – or maybe yours».
“These collections – of hundreds of objects – that our professional work has led us to, all have at least one thing in common. We liked them, we like them, we will continue to like them. They speak to us. But with time – and perhaps a special form of maturity – there came the desire to share them, to make them travel in the world».
Another thing they have in common? That most often they are the result of manual work, element that Fournier and Marty hold particularly close to their hearts. A passion that they explain as follows: «These objects are the result of a unique and precious continuum that goes from thought, abstract design, to physical realization. They are the fruit of this harmonious movement, sometimes laborious, which all creation requires. They are therefore fragile, like us, and this is undoubtedly where their ethical value lies.».
The website – oeildeko.com – is organised in two sections: the first is devoted to paintings, sculptures and objects; the second focuses on the table, with plates, bowls, cutlery in a variety of materials (from wood to enamelled earthenware).
