AGATHA 08 CHAIR BY MARTIN MASSÉ

The AGATHA collection by Massé comprises eleven sculptural works of furniture: seven seating forms, a dining table, a coffee table, a console, and a pedestal table. Each work evolves from a shared formal motif—an interplay of simplicity, logic, and playfulness—where structure becomes gesture and support assumes a distinctly human character

At the heart of AGATHA lies the recurring presence of abstract, foot and hand shaped forms: delicate yet purposeful appendages that seem to cradle or uphold the structures above them. This personified element transforms the furniture into a meditation on care and balance. These playful shapes appear to strain gently under their load, evoking the sensation of a living form engaged in quiet exertion, as if the material itself were participating in the act of bearing weight. The duality of strength and empathy defines the collection’s sculptural language, imbuing each work with an almost animate presence

The collection draws inspiration from the primitive pine furniture of Axel Einar Hjorth, whose 1930s functionalism fused rustic craft with modernist rigor. Massé extends this lineage through the addition of ornament, humor, and tenderness, infusing rational construction with the sensual tactility of hand-carved oak, luminous limestone, and the softness of pale Dedar Belsuede upholstery

Entirely handcrafted in France in close collaboration with master artisans, the AGATHA collection stands as a contemporary expression of personified design, an exploration of how structure, material, and emotion converge to create furniture that feels both archetypal and alive