SATELLITE COLLECTION

BY MATHIEU MATÉGOT

A playful new typology for lighting

During a period of forward-looking post-war optimism, Matégot put his own material innovation, Rigitulle, to work in his Satellite Collection, named with a nod and a wink to the scientific progress in France at the time. Rigitulle enabled Matégot to reinvent the traditional lampshade, conceiving a playful new typology for lighting.

The visually striking ‘balloons on string’ form of the Satellite Wall Lamp makes it a bold and playful statement piece in any interior, be it residential, hospitality or corporate.

 
 

Flexible fixtures

Despite its name, the Satellite Wall Lamp can also be installed from the ceiling, turning it into a striking centerpiece and offering flexibility of use. His background as a set designer gave Matégot a taste for the interplay of light and shadow, and so he didn’t consider a lamp merely a functional object, but rather a key player in any interior scheme. It had not only to provide lighting, but also brilliance, surprise and delight.

The Satellite Lamp is almost an abstract modernist sculpture in monochromic black when switched off. Turn it on and its playful and airy construction radiates beguiling patterns of light.

“It is a privilege to put Mathieu Matégot’s Satellite Wall Lamp in its rightful place in the GUBI Collection alongside his Satellite Pendant and furniture and home accessories.”

 

JACOB GUBI, OWNER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF GUBI

MATHIEU MATÉGOT

 

Mathieu Matégot (1910–2001) was a self-taught Hungarian designer who settled in Paris after travelling, studying, and gaining experience in set design, window dressing, fashion, and tapestry.

He volunteered for the French army during the Second World War but was captured by the Germans and put to work in a mechanical accessories plant. It was here that he recognized the potential for perforated sheet metal to lend transparency, weightlessness and modernity to new forms. After the war, he developed Rigitulle – his take on the material – and his own folding, shaping, and bending technique.

 

MEET THE DESIGNER