Graduates of the École Nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris in 2016, Florian Dach and Dimitri Zephir form the duo of designer dach&zephir.
Conceived as a free creative space, they cross their experiences - which have their roots in Paris and Guadeloupe - in search of what makes history and identity.
The duo’s creative approach is based on Tout-Monde, a concept inspired by the thinking of Martinique poet and philosopher Édouard Glissant, who believes that the world we live in today needs to be told - and shared - according to the principles of cultural interpenetration, in a genuine dynamic of exchange: small stories - forgotten, neglected or unrecognised (as opposed to official history) and cultural heritages - both tangible and intangible - become rich design material, capable of generating a language of forms, materials and uses at the origin of artefacts and new narratives.
Willingly accepting the Other as part of the creative process, their projects, a mix of fervour and poetry, are intended to be spokespersons for plural biographies and histories - with all their richness and interferences - celebrating the urgent and necessary diversity of the World.
They tell of other ways of being face to the World and in the World.
An exploration of the Divers (tr. Diverse) that deconstructs what l’Habiter colonial (tr. colonial way of living) has tried to impose: an habiter-sans-l’autre (tr. living without anoter one) [Malcom Ferdinand, 2020].
In 2017, the duo was named one of 15 emerging European design talents by Li Edelkoort x Carpenters Gallery. Winner of the FD100, the 100 French designers who make French design shine internationally (2018) and winner of the “Special Jury Prize” at the 35th Hyères International Fashion Festival in the “fashion accessory” category in collaboration with doctor and textile designer Antonin Mongin (2020).
Published in 2019, “Éloj Kréyol : Meanderings in the field of decolonial design / Field Essays 55.3”, edited by Onomatopee through the artistic research journal Field Essays (Sophie Krier), unveils the approaches and questions that underpin their long-term research into Éloj Kréyol and the Creole histories and cultures of the French Caribbean archipelago. The decolonial research, protean and multi-faceted, combining fieldwork, testimonial objects, textual/visual essays and workshops for young audiences.
In 2020, Éloj Kréyol was finalist of the Agora du design research grant and was awarded the FME - Fondation pour la Mémoire de l’Esclavage (Foundation for the Memory of Slavery) label, attesting to the relevance and interest of the project regarding objectives pursued by the Foundation.
This research is being pursued through the FoRTE programme and the Enowe-Artagon production fund (2021), followed by Mondes Nouveaux grant, which will enable this research to be extended and reported on through a sensitive platform/mapping of overseas territories/creoles that will be launch at the end of 2023.
Their work has been exhibited at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in London, at Maison&Objet Paris, MAD Paris, Salon Satellite in Milan, Salon de Montrouge, VIA, Dutch Design Week - Eindhoven, Reciprocity Design Liège in Belgium, Operae design Festival in Turin - Italy, Mémorial ACTe in Guadeloupe, Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art in China and Karimoku Gallery in Japan.