Michaël Amzalag, Japan

AGI member since 2019

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Michaël Amzalag studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, where he met Mathias Augustyniak in 1989. He designed the music magazine Les Inrockuptibles from 1989-90, before founding M/M (Paris) in 1992. M/M have developed collaborations across cultural fields, including music, fashion, art, publishing, film and theatre. They understand their work to be in the production of a series of signs that they are constantly reordering to build their own language. As acclaimed typographers, graphic designers and art directors, M/M often repurpose their own archives, utilising photography, drawing and typography as part of an elaborate visual language that is distinctive and experimental. They have designed magazines (Interview Magazine, Vogue Paris, Purple), while working diversely with fashion houses (Yohji Yamamoto, Alexander McQueen, Loewe), contemporary artists (Pierre Huyghe, Sarah Morris, Philippe Parreno), musicians (Björk, Madonna, Kanye West) and cultural institutions. Recently, they have created scenography, set design and 3D translations of their graphic vocabulary.

Design work by Michaël Amzalag


    Michaël Amzalag, Japan (2019)

    Michaël Amzalag studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, where he met Mathias Augustyniak in 1989. He designed the music magazine Les Inrockuptibles from 1989-90, before founding...

    Read full biography
    Michaël Amzalag, Japan (2019)

    Michaël Amzalag studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, where he met Mathias Augustyniak in 1989. He designed the music magazine Les Inrockuptibles from 1989-90, before founding M/M (Paris) in 1992. M/M have developed collaborations across cultural fields, including music, fashion, art, publishing, film and theatre. They understand their work to be in the production of a series of signs that they are constantly reordering to build their own language. As acclaimed typographers, graphic designers and art directors, M/M often repurpose their own archives, utilising photography, drawing and typography as part of an elaborate visual language that is distinctive and experimental. They have designed magazines (Interview Magazine, Vogue Paris, Purple), while working diversely with fashion houses (Yohji Yamamoto, Alexander McQueen, Loewe), contemporary artists (Pierre Huyghe, Sarah Morris, Philippe Parreno), musicians (Björk, Madonna, Kanye West) and cultural institutions. Recently, they have created scenography, set design and 3D translations of their graphic vocabulary.

    Publications

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    The Alphadicks

    (2010)

    • Glenn O'Brien

    M/M (Paris)

    Twenty-six loaded cowboys. Drawings by Mathias Augustyniak. Rhyme by Glenn O'Brien. 'Every man has two heads. That's better than one.'

    Slátur/Slaughter

    (2012)

    • Oddný Eir,
    • Ófeigur Sigurdsson

    M/M (Paris)

    Photographs by Mathias Augustyniak. 'Perhaps because the relationship between philosophy and sheep is especially close in Iceland, questions about the core of things, space and time, negative space and positive time are naturally discussed while handling lambs' hearts.'

    The Givenchy Files 2007-2012

    (2012)

    • Olivier Zahm

    M/M (Paris)

    Invitations and graphic works inspired by the collections of Riccardo Tisci. Art by M/M (Paris). 'These elegant invitations, dark, tortured, mysterious, erotic, surrealistic, are a sort of thumbing of the nose at current fashion images.'

    The Art World

    (2012)

    • Éric Troncy

    M/M (Paris)

    Photography from the FIAC posters and advertising, 2005 – 2012. Photography by M/M (Paris). 'A sort of geographical manual defining the movements of art works, bringing them to a specific territory, to its peripheries.'

    Sans vous faire rien voir, je vous en fais un conte...

    (2016)

    • Éric Vigner,
    • Bénédicte Vigner,
    • Éric Demey,
    • Jean-Louis Perrier

    M/M (Paris)

    Les affiches du Théâtre de Lorient, 1996 – 2015. «Quand je veux, j'épouvante; et quand je veux, je charme.»

    Exhibitions

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    Centre Pompidou-Musée national d’art moderne, Paris

    Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen

    Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami

    Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt

    Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

    State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

    Tate Modern, London

    Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

    Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York

    Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris

    Design Museum, London

    Education

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    Visiting Professor

    • Undergraduate

    2014 – 2014

    • École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (France)

    Visiting Professor

    • Undergraduate

    1996 – 2001

    • École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (Switzerland)

    Agencies

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    Awards

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    • 2020

    Tokyo TDC Grand Prix
    • 2018

    Tokyo TDC Prize
    • 2017

    Gold Award, Hong Kong International Poster Triennial
    • 2017

    Traetta Prize
    • 2017

    Tokyo TDC Prize
    • 2013

    Grammy Award for Best Recording Package
    • 2012

    Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, French Ministry of Culture
    • 2012

    Tokyo TDC Prize
    • 2007

    Tokyo TDC Special Prize
    • 2004

    Tokyo TDC Grand Prix
    • 2003

    Tokyo TDC Non Members Prize