In his recent interview with Smalltalk, TheArsenale CEO and founder Patrice Meignan lays out a worldview that perfectly explains why the brand feels more like a cultural movement than a design agency. “Mobilize came to us with a clear ambition: rethink urban mobility not as a product, but as a cultural object,” he explains, adding, “At TheArsenale, that’s exactly where we operate. We don’t design ‘cars’, we design symbols of movement.” In the Mobilize Duo x TheArsenale project, unveiled at the Fairmont Monte Carlo store, Meignan treats the microcar as a “capsule of electric energy”—a compact object that concentrates power, light, and purpose, mobility distilled to its essence.
Throughout the Smalltalk interview, Meignan returns to one central credo: “Beauty is function.” In dense urban ecosystems, he argues, objects have to fight for attention, meaning, and purpose; a “moving artwork” is not decorative, but a way to give emotional value to an everyday tool. The Duo’s Intergalactic Blue uniform transforms it from “urban EV” into design artefact—“It became identifiable from distance, almost like a signal. In cities, identity is everything,” he says. By merging sharp, sculptural aesthetics with compact, electric practicality, Meignan and TheArsenale create exactly what digital natives demand: mobility that is sustainable, personalisable, and unapologetically expressive.
The Smalltalk feature also spotlights TheArsenale Monaco, which Meignan calls a “cultural embassy dedicated to movement”—a kind of Villa Medici of mobility. Here, machines are curated like art, but with the energy of a design studio; brands prototype visions, artists reinterpret motion, and customers engage with objects almost ceremonially. Looking ahead, Meignan sees the Duo x TheArsenale as a signal for Europe and beyond: “mobility as a creative platform,” where engineering excellence fuses with cultural intelligence. The interview doesn’t just chronicle a collaboration; it documents the mindset of a CEO turning every project into a statement that mobility’s future must be limited, curated, emotionally compelling—and above all, culturally relevant.
Check the full interview here.
