“Out of the office” The Urban Blanket as a gateway

“Out of the office” series is inspired by two different fascinations. The first comes from the fascination that the Joseph Gobin has for the spaces around the back door of the hotels. The second one, comes from  the fascination that Multiply Office has for the public space in general.

On this project, The Photographer, Joseph Gobin and Nicolas Moser, Founder of Multiply Office wanted to recreate an urban atmosphere around the weight of any professional activities for each of us, and the relaxation that can bring a recreational moment alone or with friends.

This series has been designed as a story board for a short movie with the Urban Blanket as the main character. Joseph was from the beginning very eager to find a hotel scene that could have been in any cities. His fascination for the world of hospitality is linked with his passion and great interest for the human being and the background that we can find behind every professional.

The hotels are the theater of a multiplicity of events, activities,  life, complex interactions, and moments. For this series Joseph Gobin wanted to focus of the staff of the hotel, and this very special  spot on the back, next to the service door, where any member of the hotel team can meet the time of a break.

There, the contrast between people, jobs, and careers can be significant. From the lowest degree of qualification to the highest one people meet or simply seat next to each other. A very social moment where every day this universe of the world of the hotel industry meets the time of a cigarette, a coffee, or a sandwich, as one would do around the coffee machine. This area which is so invisible for most of us when we don’t take the time to look at it in details, remind us of the complexity and the excitement that a city can offer.

During the brainstorming, Nicolas Moser was particularly interested in this idea of moments, a kind of parenthesis in the routine of a working day. Combined with the Urban Blanket this moment can become half dream, half fantasy, a musing state where the Urban Blanket’s superpower can bring you everywhere.

Through the “out of the office “ series  the urban scenes recreate a busy street, a park and one beach. The workers are in between the reality and the dream, as flown and very present.  In the same way that a kid’s playground is a gateway for the children, the Urban Blanket, and the potential he carries within him can transport you anyway! Is it real? What is the most important? The sensation, the phantasy, the wishes, or the actual acts of making things?

Here the result that we wanted is a surrealist superposition of space time and activities.  Kind of paint that everybody can interpreted as he wants.  Is it just another advertisement? A playful collage or  a slice of our live?

The behind-the-scenes revels as well the potential of those space and all the richness of what can happen there :  hidden but secured and controlled let’s dream a bit. During the shooting day, we were alternatively in a service area, at the beach, in a park or in the middle of a city. the 3 scenes represent mega cities as Tokyo, Honk-Kong, and Seoul. It’s hard to know where we really are. The back scene is so generic that it can talk to everyone.