"A fabulous dichotomous experience"

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"A fabulous dichotomous experience" - Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix
1 minute read
Member of the 2013 GPHG jury, the designer superstar looks back on this experience and on the outstanding personalities he met on this occasion. Philippe Starck's busy schedule will not allow him to participate in this year's edition, however, he intends to take part in the 2015 GPHG.

As a member of the jury of the Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix, I enjoyed an amazing dichotomous experience. On the one hand, I met people on the jury with a vastly superior intellectual level and an incredible degree of passion, such as one rarely encounters; and on the other hand, I found the act of being so literally captivated by something that could safely be summed up as a collection of metal pieces absolutely fascinating. Their culture, their intimate knowledge of the history of the brands and the particularities of their creations really impressed me. At the same time – because this is what it is all about, although it is never expressed as such – it is amazing to note that human nature can still be overawed by its own genius. What I witnessed on the jury represents the ultimate level of human creative genius: how the simple function of telling the time gives rise to such a well above average flood of research, sophistication and intelligence, solely for the pleasure of making one’s grey matter function. I perceive the beauty of it. I confess that I am deeply moved to see the extent of man’s creativity and his capacity for romantic abstraction. One doesn’t talk about the time but instead about the magic of the object designed to tell it. This is poetry in its purest form, a pretext for the manifestation of human poetic genius. I spent 24 hours during the final phase of the selections hanging on every word of the experts who carried me off in a space ship to explore a world built around poetic abstraction, with its leaders and followers. I cannot but sense its extreme temporal fragility, but I can also imagine being able to make a useful contribution to it one day, and why not in a miniaturised form? This world filled with passionate people is enthralling.