First launched in 2010, the Artists’ Residencies programme welcomes three new artists to Hermès workshops in 2020, with two sites participating in the programme for the first time.
Bérengère Hénin (b. 1983), a graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, will discover the skills of the leatherworkers at the new Hermès workshop in Allan, in the Doubs département, which opened its doors in 2018. Mentored by Françoise Pétrovitch, Hénin brings the biting sense of humour that runs through her work, often in the form of ironic references to the history of art. True to form, she is planning an installation in leather evoking the aftermath of a party.
Enzo Mianes (b. 1988) is a fellow graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. He will undertake his residency at a workshop in Challes, in the Sarthe region, which specialises in the hand-weaving of horsehair. Under the mentorship of Michel Blazy, Mianes will be the first laureate of the Artists’ Residencies programme to discover the skills of horsehair weaving, a process that uses the historic Jacquard loom. Drawing inspiration from the real world and infusing it with poetry, Mianes will turn his hand to the ancestral gestures of the Jacquard weavers – sometimes likened to those of the pianist – to create original patterned textiles.
Chloé Quenum (b. 1983), meanwhile, will work alongside the craftspeople of La Cristallerie Saint-Louis in the Moselle region, a site that has been a fixture of the Artists’ Residencies programme since its first edition. Quenum, also a graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, will be mentored by Isabelle Cornaro. Taking an anthropological and historical research approach to her art, Quenum envisages a participative project that will foreground the particular skills and knowledge of each craftsperson at Saint-Louis.
