75 YEARS OF MANTIS

Three quarters of a century after its creation by Bernard Schottlander, the Mantis collection remains one of the defining icons of twentieth-century lighting design.

In 1951, German designer and sculptor Bernard Schottlander conceived a series of luminaires destined to transcend the passing decades without losing any of their relevance or appeal.

A great admirer of Alexander Calder and the kinetic grace of his mobiles, Schottlander envisioned Mantis as a sculpture brought to life through movement.

Seventy-five years on, DCW éditions guided by its philosophy of "Well-conceived. Well designed. Well made", celebrates the anniversary of Mantis with the same unwavering conviction: that poetry and weightlessness can exist in perfect harmony.

Schottlander’s work was fundamentally rooted in the study of movement. For Mantis, he developed an ingenious pivot-and-counterweight mechanism combined with slender steel rods that are at once flexible, resilient and, remarkably strong. From this dialogue between tension and balance emerged a family of luminaires that appear to defy gravity, frozen in a gesture that feels almost animal-like poised somewhere between sculpture and everyday object.

A heritage looking to the future. Seventy-five years after its creation, Mantis remains true to its original promise: to unite the bold vision of the artist, the precision of the engineer and the poetry of an object that inspires the imagination. Elegance on a thread, still perfectly balanced.