Drôles d'ouvrages

The exhibition "Drôles d’ouvrages" brings together fifteen artisans around a shared taste for the strange and the offbeat. Wood, ceramic, glass, metal, textile, or repurposed materials become arenas for experimentation and play.

Through singular objects, sometimes hybrid, often unexpected, each creator challenges conventional uses and questions our relationship with matter and objects. Blending poetry, humor, and strangeness, this exhibition invites visitors to see contemporary artistic craftsmanship in a new light, where skill interacts with imagination and the work becomes decidedly... amusing.

Coming from a background in graphic design, he trained in ceramics in London before further developing wheel-throwing techniques in France. His training enabled him to master the shaping of stoneware and porcelain, as well as hand-building and ceramic illustration. In his studio, he has developed a practice that combines technical precision with formal experimentation. His work stands out for transforming graphic drawings into ceramic volumes, mainly wheel-thrown, blending geometric forms and sculpted figures inspired by the Memphis movement, the Bauhaus, and London pop culture. These characters are an extension of himself and come to life as he shapes them in stoneware or porcelain on the wheel.

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Sébastien Carré develops a contemporary jewelry practice based on the mastery and reinterpretation of textile techniques, integrated into the field of ornament. Rooted in his personal history and passed down within his family, these techniques form the core of his creative process. He combines vegetal, animal, and mineral materials to compose organic, landscape-like forms, playing with their physical and sensory interactions. His work highlights a hybrid technical approach, in which textile becomes a sculptural medium serving the body and perception.

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Trained in object design, Éléonore Gold-Dalg has developed a practice grounded in a strong background in applied arts and design. Earning a vocational diploma in lampworked glass enriched her technical and craft-based approach. She masters the shaping of materials—particularly glass—through a precise practice that combines experimentation and know-how. Her work explores the plant world and its domestication, questioning both the status of objects and the living conditions of plants.

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Graduates of the Beaux-Arts de Reims, Véronique Carlotti and Isabelle Royer have been developing since 1989 a practice focused on the technical mastery of large-scale metal wire. Their work transforms the chandelier into a major architectural element, combining lightness and presence through airy structures. They experiment with new materials and techniques, drawing from dinanderie by using silver and copper to create a unique and lightweight metallic textile. Each piece is custom-made, the result of a precise and exploratory technical process that blends beauty, harmony, and emotion.

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She shapes her pieces from white porcelain, a demanding material chosen for its purity and luminosity, which she both throws and models with precision. The decoration is achieved through meticulous incisions and impressions, creating delicate patterns reminiscent of lace or tattoos, which are palpable to the touch. After a first firing at 980 °C, she glazes and stains selected areas with metallic oxides to enhance the depth and contrast of the motifs. A second firing at 1,300 °C vitrifies the porcelain, revealing its strength and translucency—a result of a precise and exacting technical process. Her sculptures thus combine technical mastery with expressive delicacy.

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Arnauld Le Calvé’s work is based on a technical mastery of clay and glass, two materials with opposing properties—rough and smooth, opaque and transparent—revealed through fire. As a sculptor of the moment, he shapes forms and colors by playing with these contrasts to express his emotional states. His creations, from utopian habitats to the totems of his current series The Guardians, are inspired by various animist cultures such as Shintoïsm, explore the transformation and balance of materials through gesture and technique.

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Isabelle Léourier develops a sculptural practice focused on technical mastery and material experimentation. Trained as a fashion designer and milliner, she works with textiles, steel, feathers, and resin, combining sewing, embroidery, featherwork, and modeling to create organic forms. Her work explores fragility and vital energy, blending traditional techniques with personal innovations. Each piece emerges from a precise process where abstraction and figuration meet, bringing to life sculptures that are both lively and poetic.

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Alix Liegey, a ceramist trained in architecture, has developed a practice focused on the precise hand-modeling of stoneware. She creates unique, numbered bricks, which have become the central element of her artistic universe. Her technical work explores form, scale, and function, while playing with the perception and use of the material. She occasionally collaborates with other artisans, enriching her practice through shared experimentation. Each piece reflects technical mastery, creativity, and careful attention to detail.

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Emmanuelle Manche, trained in ceramic arts at ENSAAMA (National higher school of applied arts ans cafts), develops a practice focused on the precise modeling of stoneware. She creates figurative characters on the edge of reality, inspired by legends, fairy tales, and magical traditions. The rich and versatile stoneware allows her to explore varied forms and delicate textures, bringing to life creatures that are part animal, part plant, and sometimes human. Her technical work combines creative freedom with mastery of modeling, transforming the material into sculpted stories full of emotion.

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ALEX+SVET is a universe of contemporary jewelry where distinctive artistic design meets exquisite craftsmanship, seamlessly blending traditional techniques with cutting-edge innovation. Since 2000, ALEX+SVET has been redefining elegance and modern glamour. Alex and Svet carefully select the finest unconventional materials, meticulously transforming them in their Parisian studio - a space of constant experimentation, where each piece is handcrafted with meticulous attention to the most intricate details. A perfect fusion of contemporary style, retro-futuristic aesthetics, avant-garde design, and timeless grace.

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Artist and designer of Franco-Malagasy origin, Prisca Razafindrakoto develops a practice at the intersection of sculpture and design. Trained at ENSAAMA (National higher school of applied arts ans cafts), first in product design and then in Arts and Crafts, she works with metal as a sensitive material, playing with its duality of strength and delicacy. Her formal language, shaped by cultural hybridity, oscillates between surrealism and minimalism, questioning the boundaries of the object. Giving a central role to chance, she favors an intuitive approach where accidents and surprises contribute to the uniqueness of each piece, resulting in fluid, narrative, and colorful works.

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Sandrine Tortikian designs lighting fixtures, decorative objects, and tableware. She explores the full richness of porcelain to develop her poetic, delicate, and sensitive universe. Sandrine draws inspiration from her curiosity and creates by instinct. She enjoys combining forms and pairing materials with creativity and lightness.

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