ABOUT ZIM&ZOU
French duo Zim&Zou create paper art installations for a wide range of international clients such as Microsoft, ICON,Hermès, TIME, Washington Post, ENI, Der Spiegel, La Rinascente e il Centre Pompidou.
Zim&Zou is a young duo composed of Lucie Thomas (b. 1987) and Thibaut Zimmermann (b. 1986). They both started as graphic designers, working in publishing and advertising. After three years, they focused on installations using handcrafted objects made out of paper, wood, threads, etc.
WORK PROCESS
All of Zim&Zou’s works are not computer design based but handcrafted! Their favorite material is paper, which they cut, fold, glue to create colorful sculptures.
Paper is the most versatile of mediums to them, as for its unique colors and textures. The final artwork is an installation rich in poetry and shapes of any complexity. Their visual style focuses on exciting and whimsical scenes. Colorful buildings, giant flowers, and vegetation, natural landscapes are filled with huge seafood to become the main characters of their creations. ‘Life is everywhere; flowers are growing and carry away its inhabitants in their impetus. The mysterious people are evolving, building, and living right in the heart of nature, revealing a fragment of their daily life.’
MUSEUM OF SUPERNATURAL HISTORY – Artist Windows for Hermès Maison Shanghai.
The concept is inspired by a Museum of Natural History, melted with a Cabinet of Curiosities. The windows, hand-made with paper and leather, are an invitation to wander. Passers-by were suddenly walking through the corridors of a mysterious Museum, straight from the street. The themes take impulse from nature; the two main windows are about Air and Water, and the two smaller ones around Earth. All the animals are carefully handcrafted using leather offcuts from Hermès workshops in Paris. In the water-themed window, a 5 meters dinosaur paper skull is swimming through the room (plesiosaurus skull)—the whole project required almost three months of work and a great local team’s support.
EXODUS
‘EXODUS’ is an ode to Travel. Thrown in a continuous movement, the aircraft colony crosses time and space toward an unknown outcome. Like birds stuck in an endless migration, they’re pursuing their hope of an elsewhere.
The bright pink, blue, and purple aircraft are entirely hand-made. Each body displays multiple geometric patterns created with cut and stacked paper that match the rest of the fleet. Thrown in a constant movement, the aircraft colony crosses time and space toward an unknown outcome.
Zim&Zou is today called by international big firms to set-up and stage windows and visual merchandise as well as magazine content and covers.
Visit their online shop for purchase or go to their website here.
