Garouste et Bonetti : biography

The duo Elisabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti are French decorators and designers, and their collaboration began in 1980.

Elisabeth Rochline, wife of the painter Gérard Garouste, was born in Paris in 1949, into a family of Russian immigrants. After her secondary studies, she entered the Camondo School to study interior architecture. She later specialized in stage set design.

Mattia Bonetti, the son of an Italian father and a Swiss-French mother, was born in Lugano, Switzerland. At the age of 14, he honed his skills at an applied arts school in Lugano, run by former Bauhaus students. After graduating, he worked in Rome before settling in Paris to create fabric patterns while also exploring photography.

The decoration of the Parisian club "Le Privilège" marks their first collaboration. This venue was the most popular nightclub in Paris at the time. Elisabeth’s husband, the painter Gérard Garouste, created a series of decorative panels and called upon the duo to design the space. Together, they created a theatrical and magical atmosphere by mixing murals, plaster masks, and columns draped in plaster. The public's enthusiasm was immediate, prompting the duo, Garouste and Bonetti, to join forces and continue in this direction, breaking the design codes of the time.