Martine Bedin, born in Bordeaux studied architecture at the École d’architecture in Paris. In 1978 she got a scholarship that sent her to Florence, where she met members of the Radical achitecture movement and the founders of Alchimia, Superstudio and Archizoom Associati.
In 1979 Bedin was invited by Adolfo Natalini, founder of Superstudio, to contribute to the exhibiton The Decorated House (It. La Casa Decorata) at the Milan Triennale the same year. At the Triennale, Bedin met the architect Ettore Sottsass, in whose studio she worked on her own projects during a couple of years in the beginning of the 80’s.
In 1981 she was co-founder of the Memphis Milano Group, as one of only two women, next to Nathalie du Pasquier. At the Memphis first exhibition at the gallery Arb 74 the same year, Bedin presented the iconic Super Lamp made of painted steel in the shape of a toy-car, with lighting bulbs on its back. The lamp was produced by Fausto Celatti in Milan. During the same year, Bedin also designed the lamp Terminus.
Bedin works in various materials such as marble, wood, metal and ceramics. One of her best known pieces is the vase Cucumber, designed to Memphis Milano in 1985, that according to Bedin herself when asked in 2003, was inspired by “a memory of David Hockney’s swimming pool in Los Angeles.” Besides a designer, Bedin also works as an architect and professor.
In 1993 Bedin was awarded Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by French Minister of Culture. Her work is exhibited in private collections and major museums such as Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Manufucture National de Sèvre, in France.
