No longer active, Just Another Ikea Catalog was a tumblr blog which searched the world of amateur porn in search of sideboards and sofas by the Swedish brand. As well as being very funny, it was also useful. For every item present in the frame, the name and price were provided, in case anyone wanted to dash off to the nearest store. Although ironic comments have always regularly cropped up in the world of design regarding the furniture used in pornography, it was difficult to imagine an upgrade operation. And yet, We don't Embroider Cushions Here does just that, focusing on the forbidden appearances of a legendary piece of design: the LC4 chaise longue by Le Corbusier. One hundred and ninety-two racy images brought together in a book that for its impenetrability - vacuum-sealed as it is in a plastic bag - recalls the packaging of an equally hot editorial phenomenon, Sex by Madonna (1992).
But the aim of the curators Augustine and Josephine Rockebrune, sisters and artists, is not to show how in the space of just a few years, the sets of pornographic films have moved on from Billy bookcases to modernist design. No. The concept lying behind the research for We don’t Embroider Cushions Here is more complex. “We don’t embroider cushions here” is in fact the sexist answer with which, late afternoon on 14 October 1927, Le Corbusier dismissed the ambitions of Charlotte Perriand, who had come to the studio in Rue de Sèvres to present her portfolio. The architect hired her just a few months later, but only thanks to the excellent reviews for her show at the Salon d’Automne, which he visited, convincing him to make her head of production and interior design.
Now, as Le Corbusier kept a life-long record of every trace of his work – including the business card that Charlotte in any case managed to give him that inauspicious afternoon, and the contract which did not provide for a salary (nowadays a choice which is justified by “just think of the visibility”) – it is surprising that there is no documentation of the development of the LC4. What is certain is that it was created a year after the arrival of Charlotte at the studio. The suspicions of Augustine and Josephine regard a camouflaging of the contribution of Perriand, whether partial or total. Although Cassina, the current producer of the chaise, credits both as designers, together with Le Corbusier’s cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, many doubts still remain today. So much so that in the collective imagination, the chaise longue is by Le Corbusier.