activity report - Fondation d`entreprise Hermès

Transcription

fondation
d’entreprise hermès
activity report
2014
Creative
breath
Contents
Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
Activity report 2014
5
Editorial by Pierre‑Alexis Dumas
President, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
7
Introduction by Catherine Tsekenis
Director, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
KNOW‑HOW AND CREATIVITY
12
Supporting art in the making
14
33
Artists’ residencies at the Hermès workshops
New Settings
The Prix Émile Hermès
Partnering the Aperture Foundation
…and support for photography
34
sharing new work
36
Simple Shapes: an exhibition
Exhibitions at the Foundation’s art spaces
Support for the visual arts
Support for the performing arts
Support for design
20
28
32
40
56
58
60
KNOW‑HOW AND TRANSMISSION OF SKILLS
66
Supporting artisanship
68
78
The Skills Academy
Support for skills transfer and professional training
Promoting new trades and artisan careers
82
Harnessing knowledge for biodiversity
84
90
Call for projects: ‘Biodiversity and local knowledge’
The 2014 biodiversity conference
Partnering IDDRI
Supporting biodiversity
92
Getting involved: Hermès staff and H 3
94
Action for training and skills
Discovering new trades and careers
Initiatives for biodiversity
74
88
89
96
98
104
105
106
Statutes, budget, headquarters
Board of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
Team and contact
3
5
Editorial
by Pierre‑Alexis Dumas Patronage presents the perfect challenge, demanding a deep lungful of inspiration
in preparation for the exercise!
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès has begun its second term, with renewed
dedication and with more resources at its disposal. A new breath? Yes and no. Yes,
of course, because we are embarking on a second phase, a fresh chapter, full of new
and promising initiatives. But at the same time, no, because our inspiration remains
that which has breathed life into everything we do since the Foundation’s earliest days.
So what do we live and breathe here at the Fondation? We believe in implementing
an innovative approach to patronage, more targeted, more fluid, more imaginative,
more committed, more involved with our partners and beneficiaries. More than ever,
the creative breath that informs our activities, in areas where our support is legitimate,
expected and recognised, is the same breath that gives impetus to concrete acts
of solidarity – concerned about preserving things which might otherwise be lost,
but equally curious about novelty and invention. The same oxygen feeds the flame
of our belief that know‑how goes hand in hand with knowing how to be.
Pierre‑Alexis Dumas
President,
Sharon Harper, Moon Studies and Star Scratches, Nº. 9, 4 to 30 June 2005, Clearmont, Wyoming,
from the exhibition From Above and Below, The Gallery at Hermès, New York © Sharon Harper
7
Introduction
by Catherine Tsekenis CREATIVE BREATH!
Creative breath! Creativity is the life force of the men and
women we support.
Partnering their work means giving them opportunities to take
that vital impetus further, providing them with a fair wind and
the freedom they need to flourish.
In spring 2014, Susanna Fritscher – a visual artist and long‑time
friend of the Foundation – told us about her interest in creating
a work at the cristalleries Saint‑Louis. She dreamed of encasing
breath itself in a crystal envelope: a poetic expression of such
delicacy that its production would doubtless pose a formidable
technical challenge to artisans at the workshop. At the same time,
Jean de Loisy was preparing the exhibition Simple Shapes,
including a section devoted to ‘breath’. The two met, and
Susanna’s wish was granted with a commission for a work
to feature in Simple Shapes at the Centre Pompidou‑Metz,
and in the upcoming Asian incarnation of the exhibition at the
Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.
Is this not the essence of the gift of creative breath? Listening
with an open, receptive mind, sharing, and bringing people
together…
SUPPORT FOR PROJECTS IN THE MAKING
Our contemporary culture demands results, but we should not
allow this to obscure the factors and conditions that produce
those results: time for experimentation, time to develop
a bolder, more in‑depth approach… Everything we do at the
Foundation is driven by our commitment to engage with these
processes as vital creative territories in their own right. In 2014
we intervened upstream, at the genesis of projects steered
by artisans, designers, visual and performing artists,
development professionals and environmentalists, helping
them to breathe life into new commitments, new ventures.
REACHING OUT
The projects we support are forged in the privacy of the artist’s
studio, in rehearsal rooms, or deep in the heart of a region and
its community. This behind‑the‑scenes work produces concrete
objects or intangible results which the Foundation has a duty
to communicate to the public at large, complementing our
campaigns of effective support. 2014 saw an enhanced focus
on the effort to reach out and share what we do, as the most
effective way to increase recognition for our beneficiaries.
Reaching out and communicating with the public is every bit
as important in the context of projects focusing on skills
transmission or biodiversity, whose results are measurable
solely in terms of their impact on a specific population
or environment. With this in mind, we have amplified our
social media presence in 2014, as an essential tool for effective
contemporary communication.
CREATING SYNERGIES
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès steers and supports actions
which we believe demonstrate a commitment to justice and
solidarity in response to specific needs on the ground, and which
reflect our core identity. Our patronage is defined by our
determination to accompany the missions of organisations
in the public interest. Our support for public institutions is
conceived as a cooperative partnership based on shared values
and a focus on the same fundamental issues. We have solidified
this model for closer public/private cooperation in our
collaborations with the Centre Pompidou‑Metz (in 2014) and
the Théâtre de la Cité internationale in Paris (since 2010),
and we remain open to new partners, now and into the future.
2014 has been a year of intense activity, focused on the gift
of creative breath!
Canova association (H3 programme): restoring the medieval village of Ghesc, Italy © Canova
Catherine Tsekenis
Director,
Contents
Know‑how and creativity
KNOW‑HOW AND CREATIVITY
10
Core issues and overview by Catherine Tsekenis
12
13
‘Creative breath’, by Ann Veronica Janssens
14
33
Artists’ residencies at the Hermès workshops
Condensation: an exhibition
New Settings
New Settings in New York
The Prix Émile Hermès
Partnering the Aperture Foundation
…and support for photography
18
20
26
28
32
34
Sharing new work
35
‘Creative breath’ by Jean de Loisy
36
Simple Shapes: an exhibition
Atelier Hermès, Seoul
La Verrière, Brussels
Le Forum, Tokyo
Third Floor, Singapore
The Gallery at Hermès, New York
TH13, Bern
La Grande Place, musée du cristal Saint‑Louis
Support for the visual arts
Support for the performing arts
Support for design
40
42
44
46
48
50
52
54
Lee Ufan, Relatum - L’ombre des étoiles, from the exhibition Lee Ufan Versailles, France, 2014 © Tadzio
56
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60
9
11
Know‑how
and creativity
Core issues and overview
by Catherine Tsekenis
12 June 2014 saw the opening of the exhibition
Simple Shapes at the Centre Pompidou‑Metz.
For some years, the Foundation has envisaged a public
exhibition reflecting one of our central preoccupations:
an exploration of the intrinsic power of objects shaped
by nature or the hand of man, and whose simple, essential
forms exert a particular fascination. Meeting with curator
and critic Jean de Loisy and Laurent Le Bon, the then
director of the Centre Pompidou‑Metz, we quickly
became aware that the plan for the exhibition resonated
closely with their own ideas.The resulting event
exceeded all expectations. By the close of the exhibition
on 5 January 2015, over 170,000 visitors had
experienced its 19 sections or ‘chapters’, featuring over
250 works. Jean de Loisy’s magic transcends his subject;
his generous spirit is expressed in his concept
for an exhibition experienced both as a meandering,
poetic journey and an erudite, intellectual joy.
The exhibition was the Foundation’s first large‑scale
co‑production, complementing our regular activities.
In 2014, our commitment to art and culture was expressed
in a diverse range of projects testifying to the sector’s
vast potential for the application of creative skills
in the service of a particular, speculative world‑view.
Marcel Duchamp, Air de Paris, 1919‑1939, Paris, David Fleiss Collection,
Galerie 1900‑2000, from the exhibition Simple Shapes, Centre Pompidou‑Metz
© Succession Marcel Duchamp/ADAGP,
Paris 2014/Photo courtesy of Galerie 1900‑2000, Paris
All of our programmes offer a specific focus on support
for new work in the making. Invited by the curators
of the Foundation’s contemporary art spaces,
fifteen artists presented exhibitions of original work
around the world.Working in situ, we believe that
the immersive experience of new, creative contexts
answers an essential need for fresh experiences,
enriching each artist’s practice.This year, three new
artists took up residencies at the Hermès workshops
(the leather‑working workshop in Pantin, Holding
Textile Hermès in Bourgoin‑Jallieu, and Puiforcat
in Pantin), working in dialogue with artisans at each
centre.We remain attentive to new forms of artistic
experiment, too. The annual call for projects
for our New Settings programme focuses on work
at the crossroads of the arts, leading to five new pieces
for theatre, co‑produced by the Foundation. Meanwhile,
candidates for the Prix Émile Hermès addressed
contemporary lifestyles with designs for objects facilitating
‘Time to yourself ’.
In addition to Simple Shapes – an exciting new
partnership venture – the Foundation organised annual
programmes of exhibitions at our contemporary art
spaces in Brussels, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Bern,
New York and Saint‑Louis. New Settings at Paris’s
Théâtre de la Cité internationale was a cherished highlight,
and our role as a facilitator and catalyst for new talent
was consolidated at the D’Days festival in Paris,
which this year featured an exhibition of prototypes
by the twelve finalists in the Prix Émile Hermès.
Paralleling this, the exhibition Condensation presented
works by the sixteen artists‑in‑residence at the Hermès
workshops from 2010 to 2013, at Le Forum, Tokyo,
and at Atelier Hermès in Seoul.
In a world of ever‑changing complexity, the Fondation
d’entreprise Hermès is committed to support
and promote new creative work, mindful that art
sharpens our perception and – now more than ever –
stands as a guarantor of our freedom.
Supporting art
in the making
and sharing new work
‘Creative breath’,
by Ann Veronica Janssens
Supporting young talent, encouraging new work from visual
and performing artists alike, breathing new life and vigour into
the international, contemporary creative scene: what better
way to engage with the world of art today?
Taking action upstream in the creative process
is one of the key aims of the Fondation d’entreprise
Hermès, ensuring artists enjoy complete freedom
to exercise their creativity by providing the tools,
expertise, funding, time and space they need to bring
new works to fruition.
Sensitive to the practical and creative needs of the artists
it accompanies, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès offers
residencies, exhibitions and support for new work in the making,
giving artists the resources they need to experiment
at the crossroads of the materials and techniques at their disposal
and those yet to be invented in this intuitive living laboratory.
The Foundation’s own programmes (artists’
residencies, New Settings, the Prix Émile Hermès)
and partnerships (with the Fondation
Henri Cartier‑Bresson and the Aperture Foundation)
demonstrate our commitment to offer optimal
support for artists and designers throughout
the creative process, from inception to making
and sharing the finished work with the public
at large.
Ann Veronica Janssens
Artist
Mentor to Clarissa Baumann
in the artists’ residencies programme
13
Artists’ residencies
at the Hermès workshops
VISUAL ARTS
Since 2010, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès has
invited young visual artists, mentored by leading figures
on the contemporary scene, to engage with exceptional
artisan skills at the Hermès workshops in France.
The annual programme gives artists’ residencies complete
creative freedom to produce new works using fine
materials (silk, leather, silver, crystal) in collaboration with
the workshop artisans. Each residency invites one artist
to revisit his or her practice in a completely different
setting, responding to the challenge to create new work
as the outcome of a unique artistic adventure.
Accompanied by a bursary, each residency begins
with a period of immersion in the life of the workshop,
during which participating artists familiarise
themselves with the gestures, language, tools
and techniques of the different trades practised
at the site. The artist’s project is conceived and refined
in the ensuing, creative phase of the programme,
followed by a feasibility study. Finally, the piece
is produced at the workshop, drawing on the artisan
team’s exceptional expertise and skills.
In 2013, the exhibition Condensation featured the sixteen
works produced during the programme’s first four years.
Presented first in Paris, the show toured to Tokyo and Seoul
in 2014.
In 2014‑15, the fifth season of residencies features three
young artists – Lucie Picandet, Jennifer Avery
and Clarissa Baumann – proposed and mentored
by Jean‑Michel Alberola, Richard Fishman
and Ann Veronica Janssens, respectively.
Lucie Picandet in residence at the Pantin leather workshops © Tadzio
‘I began with the idea of taking a gouge
to stacked layers of leather, like digging out
a path to death. Then I saw the leather
marquetry work produced at the workshop,
and I realised that these flat, puzzle‑like images
could contain as much depth as the furrows
I had planned to hollow out. And so I found
what it was that interested me most
in the medium of leather: this perfectly flat
surface, where lines governed by subterranean
forces come together in relation to one another.’
Lucie Picandet
* The Pantin leather workshops produce
the iconic Hermès bags. The cutting studio
(ateliers de la Coupe) works upstream,
cutting leathers and fine skins for a variety
of products. Downstream, the repairs workshop
handles the after‑sales care and maintenance
of Hermès leather goods.
Lucie Picandet at the Hermès
leather workshops in Pantin*,
mentored by Jean‑Michel Alberola
Qui me soit chair
Lucie Picandet’s Qui me soit chair (‘Flesh of my flesh’) is a symbolically charged,
circular work in leather, created during her residency at the leather‑cutting
(Coupe et Table) and repair workshops in Pantin. Conceived on a small,
accessible scale (180 cm in diameter), the leather marquetry tondo evokes
a striking encounter with death, infinity and eternity: the forms of a woman
and crocodile intertwine in an endless cycle like the ancient symbol
Ourobouros. Lucie Picandet studied theology, philosophy and aesthetics
and graduated from the École nationale supérieure des beaux‑arts in Paris.
Her allegorical design draws on multiple references, engaging closely
with the unique properties of fine leather, and the exceptional skills
of the Hermès artisans.
15
Jennifer Avery, performance marking the end of her residency at Holding Textile Hermès, Bourgoin‑Jallieu © Tadzio
‘My life in France, and my work, overlapped
into a paradox, a performance, and a feminist
action. A patchwork of fragmented identities,
a path of pins or needles, a sublime fairytale,
a tactile decadence. Our collaborations
are performing objects – a critique and
a celebration of the performance of eros
and femininity. Because of this, perhaps more
than anything else I am interested in empathy.’
Jennifer Avery
* Established in 2012, the Société nouvelle
de confection, mainly situated
in Bourgoin‑Jallieu, is devoted to hand‑made
textile accessories for women and men.
The site includes a prototype workshop
and a University of Hand Skills, and forms part
of Holding Textile Hermès, the house’s Silk
and Textile cluster.
Jennifer Avery
at Holding Textile Hermès*,
mentored by Richard Fishman
Pupa, Poubelles, Bêtes
Jennifer Avery – a visual arts graduate from Brown University in Providence
(United States) – worked in residence at the Hermès silk and textile
workshops in Bourgoin‑Jallieu. Collecting off‑cuts and remnants – the last
vestiges of production – Avery worked with seamstresses in the assembly
workshops to create an ensemble of figures using these recovered materials.
Organised into Pupa, Poubelles and Bêtes (‘pupae’, ‘trash’ and beasts’),
the pieces are a shared exploration of the artist’s obsessive fascination with
dolls.The figures were presented as part of an installation, a fictive dolls’
boutique in which Avery played the role of sales assistant for two photo
sessions.The photographs, and the dolls themselves, are the only record
of these two, solitary performances that emerged from a collective venture
at the Hermès workshops.
Clarissa Baumann in residence at Puiforcat, Pantin © Tadzio
‘Metalwork has been central to mankind’s
material culture for thousands of years.
And so, for me, working with metal constituted
a challenge: does a metal object bear
a physical memory? What catalogue of gestures
transforms it? My residency at the workshops
was like archaeology in reverse as it examined
the object and the everyday work
of the artisans, a methodology that adopted
the form of a game.’
Clarissa Baumann
* Founded by Émile Puiforcat in Paris, in 1820,
the family business initially specialised
in cutlery‑making, then evolved to embrace
fine metal‑working towards the end
of the 19th century. Puiforcat became
part of the Hermès Group in 1993.
Today, the workshops are located in Pantin,
on the edge of Paris.
Clarissa Baumann at Puiforcat*,
mentored by Ann Veronica Janssens
Cuillère, Sphère
A spoon (Cuillère) becomes a thread, and a sphere (Sphère) is gradually
dematerialised: two pieces produced by Clarissa Baumann in residence
at Puiforcat were thus transformed in performances involving the workshop’s
artisans. Gesture and extreme economy of means are twin focuses
for this Brazilian artist, who had already worked in the studio of her mentor,
Ann Veronica Janssens, at the École nationale supérieure des beaux‑arts
in Paris. At the residency in the Pantin workshops Baumann posed some
real technical challenges to the silversmiths. A simple spoon was stretched
to its utmost extent, obtaining a delicate silver thread. Manipulated at each
end, the thread becomes a vector for the transmission of sound between
two people. Complementing this, a metal sphere is polished to its smallest
possible size. Barely visible but not entirely disembodied, the object is passed
from hand to hand by the artisans while describing the techniques
used – until it has (probably) disappeared altogether.
17
Condensation:
an exhibition
Following its initial showing in Paris,
at the Palais de Tokyo, Condensation toured to Asia
(Japan and Korea) under the curatorship of the French
critic Gaël Charbau.
The sixteen pieces created during the first four years
of the Foundation’s programme of artists’ residencies
testify to a wealth of creativity.The touring exhibition
further highlights the production processes involved:
each work is a testament to the context in which it was
created, setting new technical challenges through close
collaboration between the artists and artisans.
In addition to highlighting these key aspects of the
residencies programme, the exhibition’s Asian tour
reflects the Foundation’s commitment to showcasing
the participating artists to a wider, international public.
Condensation
at Le Forum, Tokyo
19 March – 30 June 2014
Condensation
at the Atelier Hermès, SEoul
‘The Condensation tour has enabled us to experiment with new
connections between the works and the Foundation’s exhibition
spaces. At Le Forum in Tokyo, designed by Renzo Piano,
the building’s strong identity extended the alchemical metaphor
of the exhibition’s title. Gallery floors at Le Forum are framed
by a curtain wall of glass blocks, establishing a powerful
connection between the building’s interior and its outdoor
environment. I tried to accentuate the building’s shifting
natural light so that the public could experience the works as if
over a cycle of several days and nights – a metaphor for
the extended period of dialogue and exchange between
the artists and artisans, and a reference to the work of the
alchemist, who follows the cycles of the sun and moon.
At the Atelier Hermès in Seoul, I approached the exhibition
as a mise en abyme of the residencies’ programme as a whole.
The scenography was structured by display panels covered
in stainless steel – a common feature in Seoul architecture.
The works, the exhibition space and the visitors were all
reflected in the panels, creating curious, superimposed images
that established a continuity between the various elements
present in the show. Light, silk, leather, silver, crystal… each
medium melted into the other through a process of reflection
(in every sense). The exhibition took the time to look in on itself
while observing from different angles the many connections
that make the residencies such a rich experience.’
Condensation exhibition at Le Forum, Tokyo, 2014 © Nacása & Partners Inc.
2 October – 30 November 2014
Participating artists were invited to tour with the exhibition, to meet
Japanese and Korean art professionals, and the two countries’ art media.
Exhibition curator Gaël Charbau organised talks and exhibition tours
in both cities.
Gaël Charbau
Exhibition curator
Condensation exhibition at Atelier Hermès, Seoul, 2014 © Kiyong Nam
Condensation
19
New Settings
New
Settings
PERFORMING ARTS
The Foundation’s New Settings programme
encourages artists experimenting with new theatrical
forms, through support for the production and staging
of projects at the crossroads of artistic disciplines,
processes and areas of expertise. Conscious of the need
to acknowledge and enshrine innovative, experimental
work in the contemporary artistic landscape,
New Settings offers practical support for unprecedented,
cross‑disciplinary collaborations leading to distinctive,
new works of theatre. Selected productions from recent
editions of the programme enjoy international
exposure through the Foundation’s partnership with FIAF
(French Institute Alliance Française) in New York,
the organisers of the city’s annual Crossing the Line festival.
New Settings #4
Théâtre de la Cité internationale
Paris, France
3 – 15 November 2014
Round table:
‘Performing arts/Visual arts’
Théâtre de la Cité internationale
Paris, France
15 November 2014
With:
Vincent Beaurin and Justin Godfrey, Al Hamrâ, 2014 © Mathilde Delahaye
Vincent Beaurin , visual artist
Jacqueline Caux , contemporary music specialist,
experimental and documentary film‑maker
Autumn 2014 saw the fourth annual New Settings festival
from the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, at Paris’s Théâtre
de la Cité internationale. Following an international call
for projects, five new works based on encounters between
artists working in different disciplines (the visual arts, dance,
theatre, comics and cartoons, design, music and more)
were produced and performed in public for the first time.
The fourth New Settings festival was the first
to be partnered by the monthly review art press,
with a special supplement covering the event.
Art press also co‑organised a round‑table discussion
on the performing and visual arts, on 15 November 2014
at the Théâtre de la Cité internationale. A panel
of artists, critics and artistic directors explored processes
of exchange and influence between the performing
and visual artists, and the wider interaction between
performing and gallery spaces in the contemporary arts.
Bastien Gallet , writer, philosopher,
co‑director of the publishing house Musica Falsa
Laurent Goumarre , radio producer (France Culture), broadcaster
(France 5), deputy artistic director of the Biennale de la danse de Lyon
Stéphane Malfettes , director of the Louvre auditorium, writer on rock
culture, art press editorial advisor on the performing arts
Hervé Robbe, dancer and choreographer
Moderator: Catherine Millet ,
art critic and editorial director, art press.
Sculpture and installation: Vincent Beaurin
Music composed and performed by:
Justin Godfrey
Lighting designer: Sylvie Garot
Technical advisor: Stan Bellœil
Production: Lebeau & associés
Artistic committee
New Settings #4
Pascale Henrot and Olivier Bertrand
Théâtre de la Cité internationale, Paris
Lili Chopra, Simon Dove and Gideon Lester
French Institute Alliance Française, New York
Catherine Tsekenis and Blandine Buxtorf‑D’Oria
Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Paris
New Settings has established itself as a key event in the Paris
cultural rentrée (autumn season).
New Settings #4 drew the festival’s biggest‑ever audience.
With the support of the Fondation d’entreprise
Hermès (New Settings programme)
Vincent Beaurin & Justin Godfrey
Al Hamrâ
Seated on the stage, the audience gazes at the empty rows in the domed
auditorium. A strange installation dominates the centre of the space –
a large flower with seven satiny petals looms over a podium set with various
percussion instruments.When American virtuoso Justin Godfrey
plays the hang drum, the result is a total sensory experience –
sound and vision in perfect harmony. Devised by French visual artist
and colourist Vincent Beaurin, the flower captures the attention with
a mesmerising display of iridescent colours, playing delicately across
its geometric petals – a visual extension of the enchanting, crystalline music
filling the space of the theatre. A momentary flirtation with synaesthesia.
World premiere.
The show brought fresh audiences to New Settings, attracting the wider contemporary art public.
21
Jessica Mitrani and Rossy de Palma, Traveling Lady, 2014 © Sasha Arutyunova
Director and visual artist: Jessica Mitrani
Performer: Rossy de Palma
Jessica Mitrani & Rossy de Palma
With:
Joan Juliet Buck, Jordan Morley, Lola
Pashalinski, Jim Muscarella, Nikki Columbus
Traveling Lady
Digital production: Alex Czetwertynski
Music composed by: Andres Levin
Costumes: threeASFOUR
Scenography: Christian Wassmann
Stage adaptation: Nikki Columbus
Lighting designer: Roderick Murray
Animation and sound: Brian Close at Georgia
Technical direction: Sarah Ford
Costumes and puppets made by: Elizabeth Fisher
Technical assistant: Joanna Bem‑Haja
The Traveling Lady of the title is the real‑life American journalist Nellie Bly,
an avant‑garde figure (and woman) who broke Phileas Fogg’s fictional
record by journeying around the world in 72 days.This picaresque adventure
from another century is the inspiration for a sophisticated contemporary
production combining video, theatre, music and song, featuring the distinctive
silhouette of Spanish actor Rossy de Palma playing the role of the journalist
on stage and in a graphic, black‑and‑white video by Colombian artist
Jessica Mitrani.The sparky, stylised play of mirrors and stage doubles takes
the spectator on a delightful, witty journey to the heart of the female identity.
French premiere.
World and US première at the Crossing the Line festival, New York in partnership with the FIAF
and the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès.
New Settings
Hervé Robbe and Benjamin Graindorge, La Tentation d’un ermitage, 2014 © Laurent Ciarabelli
Concept and choreography: Hervé Robbe
Scenography and costumes:
Benjamin Graindorge
Costumes made by: Catherine Garnier
Music by: Romain Kronenberg
Lighting: François Maillot
Libretto and staging:
Ninon Prouteau‑Steinhausser
Dancers: Alexia Bigot, Olivier Bioret, Yann Cardin
Singers: Blandine Bouvier, Charlotte Plasse,
David Colosio Production: Travelling&Co
Co‑production: Fondation Royaumont Production in residence at Théâtre 71,
Scène nationale de Malakoff, Centre national
de danse contemporaine – Angers
with the support of La Ménagerie de Verre
(Studiolab programme)
at the Atelier de Paris Carolyn Carlson
Hervé Robbe & Benjamin Graindorge
La Tentation d’un ermitage
Nothing is fixed, everything is possible: in La Tentation d’un ermitage, dancers
use language, singers use gesture, and every aspect of the production
and staging suggests a state of perpetual flux. Inspired by the American
writer and thinker Henry David Thoreau, choreographer Hervé Robbe
and designer Benjamin Graindorge have created a world apart, exploring
the possibility of a return to the primeval simplicity of the natural state.
The piece’s minimalist, pared‑down approach is expressed in the movements
and sounds of a small band of dancers and singers, and the radical simplicity
of the wooden set and lighting. Scenography and choreography come
together with great subtlety in a work that invites the spectator to embark
on their own existential quest.
World premiere.
Expanding the New Settings audience, the show attracted a substantial public from the world
of design.
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Christophe Blain, Barbara Carlotti and Jean‑François Auguste, La Fille, 2014 © Jorge Fidel Alvarez
Drawings: Christophe Blain
Songs written and performed by: Barbara Carlotti
Director: Jean‑François Auguste
Musical director: Benoît de Villeneuve
Videos by: Magali Desbazeille
Lighting: Nicolas Joubert
Costumes: Clair Raison
With:
Barbara Carlotti, Jean‑Pierre Petit,
Benoît de Villeneuve, Benjamin Esdraffo,
Jérémie Régnier, Jesse Vernon, Stéphane Bellity,
Tibo Barbillon
Production: PULP Festival/La Ferme du Buisson‑Scène
nationale de Marne‑la‑Vallée
Co‑production:
Pbox, l’Onde‑Théâtre et Centre d’art
de Vélizy‑Villacoublay with the support of the
Centre national des variétés, Adami and
the SACEM
Christophe Blain & Barbara Carlotti
& Jean‑François Auguste
La Fille
A wild escapade in songs and images. Singer Barbara Carlotti takes inspiration
from the rebel seductresses and romantic cowboys peopling the pages
of comic books by Christophe Blain.The performer narrates a fast‑paced
adventure in words and music, against a backdrop of projected images that
spring to life under the artist’s pencil. Bursting out of the frame and onto
the stage, the graphic novel is the counterpoint to the unlikely story of a girl
and a cowboy who meet, part and search for one another in the vast,
desert landscapes of the American West. Directed by Jean‑François Auguste,
the production features inventive stage trickery, bringing a touch of humour
to this arresting, provocative show.
Clédat & Petitpierre and Sylvain Prunenec, Abysse, 2014
© Mathilde Delahaye
Visual artists: Yvan Clédat and Coco Petitpierre
Dancer: Sylvain Prunenec
Clédat & Petitpierre & Sylvain Prunenec
Production: Lebeau & associés
Abysse
Co‑production: Association du 48
Abysse took New Settings #4 out to the foyer and esplanade of Paris’s
Théâtre de la Cité internationale for the first time. Emerging into the public
space, the performance was the first of its kind since the launch
of New Settings in 2010.The result of an encounter between two visual artists
– Clédat & Petitpierre – and choreographer Sylvain Prunenec,
Abysse is an installation offering a wry take on the traditional aquarium
environment, in which a tentacled creature similar to a sea anemone gently
writhes. Nestled at the heart of a rock sculpture, the dancer activates the ‘set’
via a series of slow, aquatic movements and a powerfully evocative, gestural
vocabulary imbued with the history and collective memory of modern
and contemporary dance.
First New Settings performance staged outside the auditorium, in the public areas
of the Théâtre de la Cité internationale.
Work premiered in the public space, accessible to audiences and bystanders.
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès would like to thank Pascale Henrot
(director of the Théâtre de la Cité internationale) and her team for their enthusiasm
and loyal support of the New Settings programme.
New Settings
in New York
For the second consecutive year, New York’s Crossing
the Line festival (8 September – 20 October 2014)
featured two productions from the New Settings
programme, in partnership with the Fondation
d’entreprise Hermès: a new work premiered in 2014,
and a piece from New Settings #3.
Launched in 2007 by the French Institute Alliance
Française (FIAF), Crossing the Line has established itself
as a reference for cross‑disciplinary projects combining
art and performance, making it the ideal transatlantic
forum for selected productions premiered as part
of the New Settings programme.The Foundation’s
partnership with FIAF reflects its commitment to promote
the public performance and dissemination of works
supported at every stage of their creative process.
Jessica Mitrani
& Rossy de Palma
Traveling Lady
Premiered at New Settings #4
World premiere
Gilles Jobin
& Julius von Bismarck
Quantum
Premiered at New Settings #3
US premiere
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès would like to thank
Marie‑Monique Steckel (President of FIAF),
Lili Chopra (Artistic director, FIAF),
Simon Dove and Gideon Lester (co‑curators of Crossing the Line).
Jessica Mitrani and Rossy de Palma, Traveling Lady, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, 2014 © Sasha Arutyunova
New Settings in New York
27
Prix Émile Hermès
The Prix
Émile Hermès
DESIGN
2014 edition
Presented every two years, the Prix Émile Hermès
rewards design projects addressing key aspects
of our evolving contemporary lifestyles. The prize
reflects the Foundation’s commitment to support
this vital, creative field and its engagement with
our changing society. Open to designers under 40
from all over the world, the competition invites entries
responding to a specific, themed call for projects, with
a particular emphasis on innovation and sustainability.
Winners each receive a cash prize designed to help
them move forward to the next stage in their career
– embarking on a substantial new project, or setting
up their own agency. The winners are announced
at a high‑profile event in the design calendar, and their
projects are revealed simultaneously on the dedicated
Prix Émile Hermès website. The twelve prototypes
receive international exposure via a temporary exhibition
and a permanent online gallery.
A shortlist of twelve entries is selected by an international
jury of leading design professionals. Each finalist receives
support from the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès to produce
a prototype, drawing on specific artisan expertise.
Quality of execution is an important criterion at this stage
of the competition.The resulting prototypes remain
the creative property of their designers. Each project
is subsequently reassessed by the jury; prizes and special
mentions are awarded to the stand‑out entries.
www.prixemilehermes.com
‘Time to yourself’
Jury members
Everyone benefits from taking a break, securing some
private space at work, finding a moment to step out
of the constant stream of information and demands
on our time and attention: the third edition
of the Prix Émile Hermès invited designers to address
a vital need, namely ‘time to yourself ’.The 2014 theme
explores our need to take time out from our increasingly
crowded, stressful daily lives, to focus, escape
or ‘recreate’.The theme engages explicitly, too, with
a long design tradition of furniture for relaxation.
Michele De Lucchi
President of the jury
Architect, Italy
Chantal Hamaide
Editorial director
Intramuros magazine, France
Pascale Mussard
Vice‑president of the Fondation d’entreprise
Hermès and artistic director of ‘petit h’,
Hermès maison, France
Penny Sparke
Over 700 designers from 54 countries answered
the 2014 call for projects. A jury of design professionals,
chaired by Italian designer Michele De Lucchi,
selected a shortlist of twelve entries, each of which
received funding for the prototype stage.
The resulting objects offered a variety of responses
to a unique challenge – the suspension of time itself.
Professor of design history
Kingston University, United Kingdom
President of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
and artistic director of the house of Hermès,
France
Oki Sato
Designer, Japan
Three projects were awarded a joint first prize: the jury
chose to divide the €90,000 total prize money equally,
highlighting ‘three pertinent responses in different
typologies: an object, a piece of furniture, a small‑scale
work of architecture’.The jury also awarded a special
mention to a duo of finalists, in recognition of their ‘artisan
project illustrating the diversity of cultures represented
in the competition’.
The prototypes feature in a permanent online gallery
and were displayed at Paris’s Espace Commines during
D’Days in May 2014, in an exhibition designed
by the BIG‑GAME collective.
Over 700 entries were received from designers in 54 countries.
Finalists and winners receive high visibility at a key event in the design calendar.
Over 580,000 visits for the online gallery.
Logo by Catherine Zask, title sequence visuals by Babel
29
Winners
Joint 1 st prize
Finalists
Johan Brunel
& Samuel Misslen
Anaïs Benoît
Colin Peillex
Switzerland
Rocking Feet
Switzerland
Jeux de mains
Atelier jes, France
Maciej Chmara
Ania Rosinke
La Capsule ventilée
Austria
Moment for Oneself
Austria
A space to think
A wooden cabin with natural ventilation thanks
to a chimney extractor and air circulation in the lower
part of the structure. Inside the space, a net forms
a hammock for siestas and relaxation.
Sébastien Cordoleani
Yashesh Virkar
Spain
Hush
India
Rocking lounge
Kelvin Lim
Sander Brouwer & Mara Ribone
Singapore
Window Seat
Italy
Solitude
‘Our capsule is a space that invites contemplation,
inactivity and sheer sensory pleasure.’
Paul Tubiana
Award ceremony for the Prix Émile Hermès 2014 in Paris, 22 May 2014:
Michele De Lucchi (president of the jury) and Catherine Tsekenis
(director, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès), with the winners © Alexy Benard
Switzerland
Léon
A partition crafted in fine card that unfolds like a fan,
allowing the user to create private space whenever
they choose. A simple, elegant way to escape the gaze
of others, balanced on a wooden base along which
the screen unfolds.
‘Léon incorporates an element of surprise as it unfolds, because
of its rectangular shape. The name is a reference to the cry of a peacock
opening its fanned tail.’
Antoine Lesur & Marc Venot
France
Hut
Hut is a contemporary wall alcove allowing individuals
to lean back and enjoy a moment’s privacy in today’s
increasingly regulated workspace.The steel mesh
structure is lined with wool felt and covered in leather,
for optimal sound insulation.
‘The idea is to create space for a micro‑break rather than a siesta.’
Special jury commendation
Suman & Poulami Biswas
India
Mola
Mola is a seat conceived as a maternal cocoon. Made
entirely from eco‑friendly bamboo and cane, the armchair
becomes a private retreat, offering a sense of protection,
comfort and wellbeing.
‘We were inspired by Jamini Roy’s painting Mother & Child,
showing a child seated on his mother’s lap, enfolded in her sari.’
Exhibition of shortlisted entries for the Prix Émile Hermès at Espace Commines, Paris, 2014 © Marc Domage
Prix Émile Hermès
31
Partnering
the Aperture Foundation
Support for art in the making
photography
…and support
for photography
PHOTOGRAPHY
In 2014, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
announced a new alliance with the Aperture Foundation,
established in New York in 1952 to support
and promote the art of photography. The alliance
reflects the Foundation’s commitment to enhanced
support in this area, partnering the production of new
photographic work in association with a leading,
internationally acclaimed organisation in the field.
Complementing its transatlantic alliance with
the Aperture Foundation, the Fondation d’entreprise
Hermès provides active support for a number
of photography initiatives in France.
Since 2013, the Foundation has been the sole patron
of the Prix Henri Cartier‑Bresson, providing
the winning photographer with support for a project
that would not otherwise come to fruition.The biennial
award honours an established photographer with close
affinities to the world of documentary.The 2013 winner
Patrick Faigenbaum devoted the following year
to his project Kolkata, a portrait of an Indian artist
and her everyday family and working life.The new series
will form the basis of a publication and exhibitions
in 2015, at the Fondation Henri Cartier‑Bresson in Paris
and the Aperture Gallery, New York.
Beginning in 2015, the alliance will take the form
of residencies and exchanges in France
and the United States, culminating in a series
of exhibitions and publications. Launching
the programme, the Foundation invited Agnès Sire,
director of the Fondation Henri Cartier‑Bresson,
to propose a French‑based artist interested in creating
new work in the United States. In 2016,
a representative of an American institution chosen
by the Aperture Foundation will propose a US
photographer for a working residency in France,
focusing on a specific new project.
Each residency will lead to an exhibition at the Aperture
Gallery in New York, and an accompanying publication
in French and English, produced by the Fondation
d’entreprise Hermès and the Aperture Foundation.
The alliance also offers international exposure
for the winner of the Prix Henri Carter‑Bresson:
in 2015, Aperture will host an exhibition
by the winning photographer, Patrick Faigenbaum,
ensuring a prominent New York showcase for his work
following its exhibition in Paris.
Patrick Faigenbaum, Watermelons, in Rajabazar district, north Kolkata, July 2014
© Patrick Faigenbaum
In Brittany (north‑west France), the Foundation works
with the Centre d’art et de recherche GwinZegal,
a regional arts centre founded over ten years ago,
organising a broad range of photography‑related
activities – residencies, lectures, exhibitions, publications
and training courses. The centre’s work focuses
on three core areas: photographic history and heritage,
rural life, and contemporary art photography.
Under its director Paul Cottin (the curator of TH13
in Bern), GwinZegal offers long‑term support for young
photographers and their work, from inception to display
and publication, together with activities and events aimed
at raising the public awareness of photography
and the photographic image.
The Foundation also supported a workshop at Brittany’s
Musée Bigouden, producing contemporary designs
for the traditional coiffe (lace headdress) worn by Breton
women.The group workshop was led by photographer
Charles Fréger, who had produced a photographic series
depicting young Breton women in traditional costume
during a residency at GwinZegal.The centre subsequently
held an exhibition exploring the notion of folklore.
Prix Henri Cartier‑Bresson
France
Support from 2013
GwinZegal – Centre d’art
et de recherche
Guingamp, France
Support from 2014
Musée Bigouden
Pont‑l’Abbé, France
25 – 26 October 2014
Support in 2014
33
Sharing new work
Supporting art
in the making and…
sharing
new work
by Jean de Loisy
We have all been moved by a work of art, a dancer’s movement,
an ancient sculpture, an artisan’s accomplishment, an object’s
patina of use – those moments when something impresses itself
upon us, arrests us, gives us pause. And so we tell ourselves that,
although we may find it hard to explain, the thing we have seen
matters to us, speaks to us. We feel that, deep down, it has
touched us and opened unexpected pathways.
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès sees support
for art in the making as inseparable from the need
to reach out. Far from an end in itself, support for
the commissioning and production of new works
of art is a vital complement to initiatives aimed
at showcasing artists’ work to the widest possible
public. The Foundation is committed to sharing
a wealth of artistic diversity, promoting the public
recognition of artists and their work at our art
spaces around the world, and through support for
external projects and events.
If the exhibitions Simple Shapes and Simple Gestures have had
the good fortune to elicit this response in their viewers,
it is perhaps because they reflect certain firmly‑held beliefs.
The first is that artists now, and down the ages, have used their
contemporary techniques to explore the same fundamental
questions about who we are, so that presenting their works all
together, with no hierarchy of date, style or medium, helps
us to appreciate them – whether ancient or contemporary –
for the timeless quality they all share. Secondly, the presence
of the artists themselves both before and during the exhibition
is guaranteed to sweep aside any lingering doubts: we believe
that to see them in action, creating new work, and to discover
at first hand the depth of their engagement, their hesitation,
their research, is the best way to win new enthusiasts to their
cause. Lastly, we recognise the risks involved in the creative
process, the importance of commissions for new work,
and the need to accept their inherent uncertainties and
tensions.
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès has made all this possible,
and as each new work steps nervously into the spotlight,
we sense the extent of the risks taken, the adventure entered
into – even the quick, nervous breath of the artists who have
been bold enough to make the effort, to put themselves
forward. It is here, at the point where the work’s aesthetic
content merges with the practical evidence of its making, that
the public truly engages with the innovation and creativity that
art and artists have to offer.
jean de loisy
President, Palais de Tokyo
Exhibition curator, Simple Shapes and Simple Gestures
35
Sharing new work
Simple Shapes
Simple Shapes:
an exhibition
VISUAL arts
Simple Shapes marks an important new step for
the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès: the exhibition
is the first devised and presented by the Foundation
in partnership with a leading public institution –
the Centre Pompidou‑Metz.The event is the result
of a three‑way dialogue, including Jean de Loisy,
president of the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and curator
of Simple Shapes.
Simple Shapes embraces the unique, cross‑disciplinary
approach adopted by the Centre Pompidou‑Metz since
its opening, revisiting the history of art, and reflecting
the core values of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
in a celebration of mankind’s creative shaping of objects,
tools and artworks.
Centre Pompidou‑Metz
13 June 2014 – 5 January 2015
It’s now almost three years since artist Emmanuel Saulnier,
Pierre‑Alexis Dumas, Catherine Tsekenis, Laurent Le Bon
(the director of the Centre Pompidou‑Metz) and myself were
looking at a collection of images I had gathered together,
at the Foundation’s offices in Paris: works by great artists like
Brancusi or Kapoor, archaeological artefacts, blades from
pre‑dynastic Egypt, but also simple pebbles smoothed by the
sea, tools worn down by generations of handlers, technological
items, propellers, scientific curiosities, mathematical functions
transposed into wood or plaster in the 19th century… Disparate
elements produced by widely differing processes, but which
nonetheless constituted a fascinating, visually alluring
ensemble. Their shapes had a number of points in common:
they were individual and plain, with no extraneous detail
to distract the attention. As if stripped to their most basic
essence but nonetheless replete. They seemed to have been
born of wholly natural processes, to have evolved according
to their own laws, without human intervention. They radiated
a serene, timeless beauty, beyond the circumstances or the
particular time in which they were made or first seen.
question is a historical mystery: why did these shapes – first
seen over fifteen thousand years ago, and widespread from
pre‑Hellenic Greece to the second millennium BCE – disappear
so suddenly and completely from Western art? And then, after
an absence of some two thousand years, why did they make
such a remarkable comeback in the mid‑19th century, becoming
enshrined as icons of the Modernist aesthetic in the
20th century? And a final question, addressed at the end of the
exhibition, with Giacometti’s Cube placed alongside Dürer’s
Melencolia and the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey: what
do these shapes tell us? They are so indifferent to mankind that
they have erased all trace of human intervention, and yet, like the
drifting of clouds or the insistent inrush of the sea, they exert an
endless fascination. These mysteries breathed life into the project
and were, perhaps, the secret of its extraordinary charm.
Jean de Loisy
President, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Exhibition curator, Simple Shapes
That shared moment marked the birth of the exhibition, which
was conceived as a visual itinerary seeking answers
to a number of questions. The most important was a question
of aesthetics: why do such simple, understated objects –
an egg, a Cycladic head, a Melanesian head‑rest, a Gallo‑Roman
vase, a grindstone, a bud sculpted by Jean Arp – draw our gaze
and exert such fascination over time, irrespective of our
culture, or our reasons for admiring them? The second
Illustrated catalogue, co‑published by the Centre Pompidou‑Metz
and the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, in French and English.
Souffle, a work by Susanna Fritscher, was commissioned
by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès for the exhibition
Simple Shapes and produced at the cristalleries Saint‑Louis.
Exhibition director:
Jean de Loisy
Associate curators:
The exhibition at the Centre Pompidou‑Metz attracted 173,000 visitors.
Sandra Adam‑Couralet
and Mouna Mekouar
Simple Shapes tours to Japan’s Mori Art Museum in 2015,
in an expanded version under the title
Simple Forms: Contemplating Beauty, featuring selected new pieces.
Scenography:
Laurence Fontaine
© Bastien Morin
37
Simple Shapes exhibition at Centre Pompidou‑Metz, 2014 – section 4:
‘Who Can Do Better Than That Propeller?’
In the foreground: GE90 Design Team, Jet Engine Fan Blade (model GE90‑115B), 2001
© Centre Pompidou‑Metz/Photo Rémi Villaggi
‘Simples Shapes provides us with new perspectives.
Simple Shapes exhibition at Centre Pompidou‑Metz, 2014 – section 3: ‘Flow’
Olafur Eliasson, Round rainbow, 2005
Courtesy Olafur Eliasson; Neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York
© ADAGP, Paris 2014 © Centre Pompidou‑Metz/Photo Rémi Villaggi
It is like a journey through time and space,
an arborescence that creates connections beyond
traditional categories. It is itself a three‑dimensional
form, packed full of confrontations and emotions.
It examines our views and offers thoughts on our
ability to create forms. It invites each of us
to make our own way through these remarkable
works, and in the process humbles us. In the face
of this emotional experience, I can only say how
pleased I am that this project has become a reality
and that these Simples Shapes can now be shared
with the public.’
Simple Shapes exhibition at Centre Pompidou‑Metz, 2014 – section 8: ‘Beyond Geometry’
Tony Smith, Ten Elements, 1975‑1979 (3 of the 10 elements), Hubert Looser Collection, Zurich
© ADAGP, Paris 2014 © Centre Pompidou‑Metz/Photo Rémi Villaggi
in a preface to the exhibition
catalogue Simple Shapes
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
would like to thank cordially Laurent Le Bon
(director, 2010 to 2014) and his team
at the Centre Pompidou‑Metz.
VISUAL ARTS
Located across three continents, the Foundation’s seven
art spaces hosted new exhibitions and installations
created in situ throughout 2014. Planning for each space
is entrusted to an independent curator responsible
for defining an annual theme and devising two or three
shows of work by French and international artists.
Embracing all media, the exhibitions focus on new work,
with additional on‑site events designed to engage
and interact with the public at large. Admission is free;
exhibitions at the Foundation’s art spaces enjoy a high
profile on the local and wider contemporary art scenes.
Events at the Foundation’s art spaces were marked
by two new developments in 2014. First, the network
welcomed a new gallery, La Grande Place,
musée du cristal Saint‑Louis, in the eastern French
department of Moselle.The Foundation is responsible
for temporary exhibitions at the space, in partnership
with institutions across the Lorraine region, spotlighting
the museum’s local roots and its commitment
to the production and display of new work by regional
contemporary artists.The first partner institution,
for the 2014‑15 season, is the Centre Pompidou‑Metz.
Atelier Hermès
Seoul, Korea
La Verrière
Brussels, Belgium
Second, 2014 saw the last of a remarkable series
of exhibitions at TH13 in Bern and The Gallery at Hermès
in New York.The Foundation’s support for photography
– the medium showcased at the two galleries – will be
redefined and extended in 2015, especially
in the United States, through a new partnership with
the Aperture Foundation encompassing residencies,
exhibitions and publications on both sides of the Atlantic.
Le Forum
Tokyo, Japan
Third Floor
Singapore
The Gallery at Hermès
New York, United States
TH13
Bern, Switzerland
La Grande Place,
musée du cristal Saint‑Louis
Saint‑Louis‑lès‑Bitche, France
Sharing new work
The Foundation’s art spaces
41
43
Atelier Hermès,
Seoul
The newly‑renovated and remodelled Atelier Hermès
re‑opened its doors with the exhibition Condensation.
After Paris and Tokyo, Seoul hosted the third incarnation
of the group exhibition presenting new works created
as part of the programme of artists’ residencies steered
by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès. A total of sixteen
works in crystal, silk, leather or silver plate explore
the theme of alchemy, with this third hanging focusing
on the magical qualities of materials.The exhibition’s
curator – French art critic Gaël Charbau – presented
the pieces in a play of light and shade designed to ‘reveal
time itself, and the expertise guiding the precise [artisan]
gestures that have brought them into existence’;
gestures based on an exchange of ideas and know‑how
between the young visual artists and the artisans who
accompanied them during their residencies at the Hermès
workshops in France.
Complementing the residencies’ survey of the young
French creative scene, the Atelier Hermès focused
on Korean contemporary art with a show of work
by the finalists for the 15th Hermès Foundation
Missulsang. The group exhibition introduced artists
from a variety of different horizons, testifying
to the diversity of the contemporary Korean scene.
Work by the competition finalists embraced design,
photography and collaborative approaches,
in an unflinching examination of the discipline
of contemporary art.The 2014 winner is Minseung Jang.
Condensation
2 October – 30 November 2014
Hermès Foundation
Missulsang, 15 th edition
19 December 2014 – 15 February 2015
Condensation exhibition at Atelier Hermès, Seoul, 2014 © Kiyong Nam
International jury
of the 15 th Hermès
Foundation Missulsang
Eungie Joo
Curator, Sharjah Biennial 12
Alexis Vaillant
Chief curator at the CAPC museum
of contemporary art, Bordeaux, France
Fang‑Wei Chang
Senior curator at Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Kong Sung‑Hoon
Named ‘Artist of the Year 2013’ by the National
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art,
Gwacheon, Korea
Hong Seung‑Hye
Artist, whose work featured in a solo exhibition
at the Atelier Hermès in 2012
Condensation at the Atelier Hermès was accompanied
by a specially published journal, and a talk by the curator.
Special viewings were held for the media, and students.
Over 5,000 visitors attended both exhibitions held at Atelier Hermès.
Minseung Jang, winner of the Hermès Foundation Missulsang 2014
© Kiyong Nam
45
La Verrière,
BruSSelS
CONCRETE UTOPIA
With each new exhibition at La Verrière, I find myself thinking
of the gallery as a kind of ‘other place’ – a secret space
unconstrained by the demands of the art market (because
nothing we show is for sale) or the institutional logic
of maximum return on outlay, in terms of visitor numbers.
And so, in this ‘protected’ space, we have an opportunity
to invite artists to create works ‘other’ than those they might
produce elsewhere. A quiet invitation to take risks, to try
something new – freed from the obsession with success
or failure, the finished product, its immediate appeal
or premature censure that too often dictates art forms today.
An invitation to create a work that is neither a response nor
a reaction, but an active statement in its own right. Not
a sensational art ‘event’ but a catalyst for creativity. Quietly
audacious, not removed from the world of art, but alongside it.
The voice at the back of the room. Slightly off‑beat but
immediately accessible to anyone prepared to look.
Hubert Duprat exhibition at La Verrière, Brussels, 2014
© F. Delpech
This suspension and reappropriation of time and space
resonates perfectly with the spirit of Marcel Duchamp,
the inspiration for the series Gesture, and thought at La
Verrière. In this context, Hubert Duprat, an unusual, highly
original artist, keeping his distance from the art world but
acclaimed and discreetly influential, created an exhibition
of tremendous subtlety centred on a monumental installation
in polystyrene and shagreen – a subversive play on the shifting
value of raw materials in art. Benoît Maire combined intellectual
rigour with his unerring faith in form to set out a new,
horizontal compositional form comprising raw materials and
objects on the ‘canvas’ of La Verrière’s gallery floor. Agence
(Kobe Matthys) pursued his unique approach, presenting
a dizzying collection of law suits questioning the essential
nature of specific objects.
Hubert Duprat
26 April – 12 July 2014
Benoît Maire
LETRE
6 September – 18 October 2014
Agence
Assembly
7 November – 13 December 2014
LETRE exhibition by Benoît Maire at La Verrière, Brussels, 2014
© Fabien de Cugnac
In his definition of ‘heterotopias’ – very real, ‘other’ places –
Michel Foucault evoked a ‘break with real time’ and their own
‘function in relation to other spaces in society: they are either
illusory spaces, or spaces of perfection.’
Each exhibition at La Verrière is accompanied by a journal
published in three languages (English, French and Flemish).
Artists debated with the public during talks organised by ISELP Brussels
(the Institut supérieur pour l’étude du langage plastique), and at two events
exploring a specific legal case, as part of Agency’s exhibition at La Verrière.
Guillaume Désanges
La Verrière partnered Art Brussels, as a highlight of the contemporary art fair.
Curator, La Verrière
Assembly exhibition by Agence at La Verrière, Brussels, 2014
© Agence
47
Le Forum,
Tokyo
The 2014 season at Le Forum explored materials in contemporary
art – the solid materials such as leather, crystal, silver and silk,
the body we all share and, finally, the material of light itself –
in an attempt to express the essence of immateriality.
The exhibition Condensation showcased the Foundation’s
programme of artists’ residencies. The featured artworks
prompted public debate on issues of particular relevance to the
Japanese public, focusing on the alchemy between the
know‑how of young contemporary artists and their approach
to the materials and ancestral skills of the Hermès workshops.
Le Forum’s 2014 summer season featured a number of
contemporary art performances. Tsuneko Taniuchi transformed
her ritual Micro‑Events into ephemeral artworks over a period
of 66 days. Embodying six female characters, the artist explored
themes of resistance, happiness and exchange, through
performances around events such as barter or marriage. The works
highlighted the interactive nature of performance, as a superb
expression of the links between the artist, the work and its viewer.
Encounters with the ‘other’ are the essence of Taniuchi’s work.
Her performances are wholly unpredictable, with no preconceived
scenario. The body becomes a tool for the reactivation of history.
A waitress uses ‘Klein blue’ to express her ‘Blue Monday’, while
a John Cage score serves as background for a gymnastics broadcast
on the radio; a homeless woman gives her own version of Martin
Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’, and a Ninja girl fills her mouth with
a bone, in a reference to Paul McCarthy’s ketchup.
Tsuneko Taniuchi, Wedding (performance), from the exhibition Micro‑Events at Le Forum, Tokyo, 2014
© Maria Tomé
Ligyung has worked with light throughout her career.
Countertransference is a majestic piece that seeks to redefine
visual art by questioning the imperfections and limits of the
visible world. The Serpent’s Kiss is a new work engaging with
Le Forum’s distinctive, shifting natural light. Ligyung aims
to draw the brilliance of the sun, whose physical presence
is magnified at the time of the solstice. The second work,
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, was first exhibited
in 2001. A brightly lit white space annihilates the possibility
of darkness and shadow. Visitors find themselves immersed
in a hallucination. Paradoxically, we sense a potential presence
only once we close our eyes.
Condensation
19 March – 30 June 2014
Tsuneko Taniuchi
Micro‑Events
18 July – 21 September 2014
Ligyung
Countertransference
31 October 2014 – 7 January 2015
Countertransference exhibition by Ligyung at Le Forum, Tokyo, 2014
© Nacása & Partners Inc.
Each exhibition at Le Forum was accompanied by a publication.
A dedicated journal was published specifically for Condensation.
The curator led guided visits of the exhibition for art students.
Reiko Setsuda
Spectators were invited to take part
in performances by and with Tsuneko Taniuchi.
Culture&Window Group Manager
Commissaire du Forum
Le Forum welcomed 32,000 visitors in 2014.
Condensation exhibition at Le Forum, Tokyo, 2014 © Nacása & Partners Inc.
Sharing new work
Third Floor,
SinGAPORE
Transition:
change, movement, passage, transformation, conversion,
adaptation, adjustment, alteration, evolution, metamorphosis.
In 2014, Third Floor saw exhibitions by artists Aiko Tezuka and
Ran Hwang, whose inspirational projects explore the perception
and evolution of materiality in today’s digital age.
Meanwhile, Korean‑born Ran Hwang created a landscape in the
Confucian scholarly tradition, using over a million paper buttons
and specimen pins, precisely positioned and hammered into
21 Plexiglas panels. This monumental work was enhanced by
a video projection of a phoenix – that revered mythical creature
– creating a harmonious, enchanting experience for visitors
to Third Floor.
Aiko Tezuka
Certainty/Entropy
30 May – 27 July 2014
Ran Hwang
Becoming Again
17 October – 31 December 2014
In a globalised art world, where traditional forms are increasingly
displaced by the convenience of new media technologies,
Certainty/Entropy and Becoming Again prove that a perfect
marriage of tradition and innovation is possible.
Through the act of meticulously unravelling fabrics by hand,
Japanese artist Aiko Tezuka created compelling compositions
of loosened threads, reducing industrially produced textiles
to their constituent parts. Inspired by Singapore’s cultural
diversity, these multi‑coloured fabric works featured a vibrant
assortment of birds, butterflies, flowers and fruit patterns
interlaced with iconic modern symbols such as silhouettes
of nuclear and environmental hazard warnings. Like a playful
kitten unravelling yarn, Tezuka exposed the inner structure
of these compositions – a glimpse of the artwork collapsing
in upon itself.
Both artists, together with their respective teams of artisans,
deliberately emphasised the role of manual gesture in the
creative process, relegating the technology that pervades our
daily lives to the background. The result: tactile experiences
that cross over from past to present, acting as a bridge between
the tangible and the intangible.
Aiko Tezuka, England 1, 2014, from the exhibition Certainty/Entropy at Third Floor, Singapore, 2014
© Edward Hendricks
Over 1,200 visitors attended
the exhibition by Ran Hwang at Third Floor.
Emi Eu
Curator, Third Floor
Becoming Again exhibition by Ran Hwang at Third Floor, Singapore, 2014 © Edward Hendricks
49
Sharing new work
The Gallery at Hermès,
New York
When I was conceiving this year’s programming for The Gallery
at Hermès, I found strong shared themes between Miranda
Lichtenstein’s and Sharon Harper’s work: they are both
fascinated by traces and impressions, both on photographic
paper and on our collective consciousness. They are American
women of the same generation. They each have a very solitary
artistic practice – Lichtenstein in a studio and Harper deep
in the landscape. Lastly, both exhibitions cover almost a decade
of work, highlighting the creative process as they move from
series to series.
As an artist exploring the still‑life genre, Miranda Lichtenstein
has turned objects into images; but given their singularity
as Polaroids, these works are also objects unto themselves.
They are small, tactile and imperfect.
Sharon Harper – who counts the moon, stars and sun as her
subjects – explores the intersection of technology and
perception. Three distinct but inextricably linked series present
the viewer with images they could not see without the camera.
Some photographs are created over a period of days, weeks
and, in some cases, months on a single sheet of film inserted
and reinserted into her large format camera.
Miranda Lichtenstein
Polaroids
11 April – 4 June 2014
Sharon Harper
From Above and Below
19 September – 7 November 2014
Confounding our expectations of time and space, Harper
gravitates toward experimentation: she does not know exactly
what the final image will look like when she is making it.
Her work lives at the convergence of photography’s technical
capabilities and its poetic, even sublime, potential.
Whether photographing in France, Japan or Italy, Lichtenstein
creates complex compositions. She looks to classic still‑life
subject matter (flowers, fruit, vases), but challenges our
assumptions with misaligned shadows or distorting reflective
surfaces. In the last set of images, which were made specifically
for this exhibition, Lichtenstein worked in her Brooklyn studio
pushing the distillation of form to the edge.
Miranda Lichtenstein, New York #2, 2011, from the exhibition
Polaroids at The Gallery at Hermès, New York, 2014
© Miranda Lichtenstein
Miranda Lichtenstein’s Polaroid series New York
was produced specially for the exhibition, at her studio in Brooklyn.
Cory Jacobs
Curator, The Gallery at Hermès
In parallel with the exhibition From Above and Below,
a second solo show at Rick Wester Fine Art, Chelsea,
generated positive synergies around Sharon Harper’s work.
Sharon Harper, Moon Studies and Star Scratches, Nº. 4, June – September 2004,
from the exhibition From Above and Below at The Gallery at Hermès, New York,
2014 © Sharon Harper
51
Sharing new work
TH13, Bern
Photography is a mortal medium with the power to kill life.
Tom Wood’s reflection on the complex motives surrounding
the act of photography perfectly expresses the artist’s great
finesse in relation to what might at first glance appear
a relatively simple, even banal process.
Photography is nothing more than straightforward
representation, ‘sampled’ from a world permanently poised
between what was and what will be. It is also the (perhaps
unconscious) projection of our empirical experience of living
in that world, the accumulation of successive fragments of our
lives – the lives of the photographer, and of all those who
receive photography as viewers.
In this context, photography is more than a simple statement.
It interacts with us, setting subtle mechanisms in motion, small
(sometimes harmless) impulses that provoke questioning,
emotional reactions, a change of perspective.
Tom Wood’s work is all about sincerity, in his quest to capture
a city: his home city of Liverpool, whose streets he has explored
for over thirty years, always careful not to betray the world
he depicts, the society of which he himself is a part. His work
seeks that same sense of belonging, of integration, in its
fundamental effort to reflect an authentic identity, undisguised,
complex, fragile and contradictory.
Wood’s portraits of women, shown at TH13 from 14 March
to 14 June 2014, are a key aspect of this vast œuvre dedicated
to the city of Liverpool. Ordinary, anonymous women of all ages
are depicted among friends or family, alone, in pairs or small
groups. The pictures capture his subjects’ private worlds while
at the same time preserving a non‑intrusive, gentlemanly
distance. In complete opposition to photography constructed
around ‘intangible visual rules’, Tom Wood’s images show
tremendous formal liberty. Like the everyday life he captures,
his photographs are heterogenous, fragmented, disparate,
reinforcing the ‘evident’ quality in his work, its indisputable truth.
But for the ‘magic’ to work, it is vital that the photographer’s
sincerity towards his or her subjects, the people captured
willingly or otherwise by the lens, is never called into doubt.
Sincerity is vital not only for the act of ‘taking’ the photograph,
but also as a fundamental aspect of the different forms
the photographic object may take – as an exhibition, book or
publication… If not, we risk sweeping the art of photography
away on a tide of ironic, knowing ‘winks’ and references whose
only purpose is to showcase the photographer’s technical skill.
Tom Wood, Heather Level, Undated, from the exhibition Women at TH13, Bern, 2014 © Tom Wood
Tom Wood
Women
14 March – 14 June 2014
Paul Cottin
Curator, TH13
In 2014, Oliver Sieber’s book Imaginary Club
(with photographs from the eponymous series, shown at TH13 from
1 November 2013 to 23 February 2014) was voted
‘Photobook of the Year’ by Paris Photo and the Aperture Foundation.
53
La Grande Place,
musée du cristal
Saint‑Louis
Simple Gestures
22 September 2014 – 1 March 2015
With:
Jean‑Marie Appriou
Aneta Grzeszykowska
Ali Kazma
Eva Kotatkova
Guillaume Leblon
Natacha Nisic
Melik Ohanian
Gabriel Orozco
Émilie Pitoiset
Julien Prévieux
Jean‑Luc Vilmouth
Have you ever watched a glass blower at work? The careful
manipulation of the blow tube, the puffed cheeks, the stops and
starts, the spiralling ball of molten crystal: a gestural
performance determined, no doubt, by careful, measured
adjustments, but which remains inaccessible and mysterious
to the first‑time visitor to the workshops at Saint‑Louis. This
essential mystery drove us to celebrate the glass blowers’
curious ballet, in the exhibition Simple Gestures.
The exhibition gathered works from Saint‑Louis’s historic
collection, by artists highlighting the effective, persistent
importance of gesture and – especially, paradoxically – manual
skills, in this digital age: the French word manufacture
(‘workshop’) comes from the Latin, meaning ‘hand‑made’.
A contemporary selection of works celebrated the subtle,
manual skills, the ‘automatic’ gestures of everyday life, gestures
alien to mechanical repetition, or the expressive gestures
of human relationships.
Sharing new work
La Grande Place, musée du cristal Saint‑Louis, joined the network
of exhibition spaces under the artistic directorship of the
Fondation d’entreprise Hermès.
The Foundation’s new partnership scheme entrusts curatorial
programming at La Grande Place, musée du cristal Saint‑Louis
to cultural institutions from the Lorraine region, each for a season
of three consecutive exhibitions. The first is the Centre Pompidou‑Metz.
Simple Gestures was devised by Jean de Loisy and Sandra Adam‑Couralet,
as curator and associate curator of the sister exhibition Simple Shapes,
at the Centre Pompidou‑Metz.
Over 3,000 visitors attended the exhibition
from September to December 2014.
Gabriel Orozco, Boulder Hand, 2012, video, 54’’ loop,
from the exhibition Simple Gestures at La Grande Place,
musée du cristal Saint‑Louis, 2014 © Gabriel Orozco
From the timeless erosion of a pebble in the palm of the hand,
to the ‘mechanical’ actions of our daily lives, the virtuoso
manipulation of tools, dance, or the elementary movements
that engender music or sculpture, and, latterly, our predefined
swipes back and forth across electronic screens – these different
registers of movement, interpreted by artists, form the essential
subject matter of the exhibition, surveying the most ancient
and modern expressions of the physicality of human existence.
Jean de Loisy and Sandra Adam‑Couralet
Exhibition curators
Jean‑Luc Vilmouth, Cut out, 1980, wire cutters, electric wire, variable dimensions, collection of the FRAC Pays de la Loire,
from the exhibition Simples Gestures at La Grande Place, musée du cristal Saint‑Louis, 2014 © Tadzio
55
Sharing new work
Supported projects
Support for
the visual arts
Complementing its own art spaces and programme
of artists’ residencies, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
is a committed patron of the contemporary arts, notably
through support for projects and institutions promoting
events and exhibitions designed to bring creative artists
and their work to the widest possible public.
The Foundation was delighted to support the solo
exhibition by Korean artist Lee Ufan at Versailles,
following Giuseppe Penone in 2013. Born in 1936,
Lee Ufan received his artistic training at the crossroads
of multiple Asian influences. He is the founder and
theorist of Japan’s Mono‑Ha movement. The Versailles
exhibition comprised ten installations in stone and steel
and encouraged visitors to explore new perspectives on
the setting of each piece: the works’ minimalist rigour
focused attention on their participation in the surrounding
landscape. Conceived as an open‑air dialogue between
space, time and infinity, the magisterial installations invited
viewers to take a fresh look at the unique spaces created
at Versailles by Louis XIV’s landscape gardener, Le Nôtre.
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès supports
a variety of initiatives aimed at young contemporary
artists. The Foundation is a committed supporter
of the Prix Marcel Duchamp, organised by ADIAF,
a not‑for‑profit association promoting French art
around the world. The internationally‑acclaimed
prize is presented annually to a young artist
on the contemporary French scene.The 2014 winner,
Julien Prévieux, received a financial award
and an exhibition to be held at the Centre Pompidou
Paris in 2015.
The Foundation recognises emerging talents in France
and elsewhere, notably China. In the northern French
town of Tourcoing, Le Fresnoy - Studio national
des arts contemporains trains young artists
in all aspects of image‑making and the visual arts,
culminating in an annual Panorama of students’ work.
In 2014, four students exhibiting at Locus Solus
(the studio’s 16th annual show) were selected
to receive support from the Fondation d’entreprise
Hermès. In Beijing, the Foundation supported
the Yishu 8 China Prize: two emerging Chinese
visual artists each receive financial grants
and an exhibition at the city’s Yishu 8 Sino‑French
cultural centre.
Lee Ufan VERSAILLES
Palace of Versailles
Versailles, France
17 June – 2 November 2014
Support in 2014
Prix Marcel Duchamp
Elisabeth Caravella, Howto, film/installation, produced at Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains, Tourcoing, 2014 © DR
Paris, France
Support since 2008
Le Fresnoy - Studio national
des arts contemporains
Tourcoing, France
Support since 2013
Prix Yishu 8
Beijing, China
The Palace of Versailles received over 2,125,000 visitors during
the time of Lee Ufan’s installation, from 17 June to 2 November 2014.
Support since 2013
The Foundation’s H Box video-viewing module
has been sited at Le Fresnoy since 2013.
57
Support for
the performing arts
In addition to its own New Settings programme,
the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès supports
the performing arts through a variety of external
events and institutions actively engaged in commissioning
and producing new works for the stage, with a strong
emphasis on projects at the crossroads of contemporary
artistic disciplines.
In spring 2014, Paris’s Théâtre de la Ville joined forces with
the Musée de la Danse in Rennes and the Fondation
d’entreprise Hermès for the third edition of Danse élargie,
a competition that has quickly earned a reputation
as a springboard for new, cross‑disciplinary dance
performance.Winning productions enjoy widespread
visibility via the competition’s three partner institutions.
The 2014 winner was German artist Paula Rosolen
for her lively piece, Aerobics! In autumn 2014,
the Foundation renewed its regular support
for Plastique Danse Flore at the Potager du Roi
in Versailles, now in its 8th year. Founded by Frédéric Seguette,
the cross‑disciplinary festival attracts visual artists,
choreographers, landscape designers, performance artists
and horticulturalists, together with students at France’s
national landscape design school, the École nationale
supérieure du paysage de Versailles, for a programme
of performance art, theatre, installations and public
lectures. Autumn 2014 also saw support from
the Foundation for productions by choreographer
Jérôme Bel – Jérôme Bel (1995) and Cédric Andrieux
(2009) – at several venues in Paris, Aubervilliers
and Nanterre, as part of the French capital’s annual
Festival d’Automne. Bel’s radical works deconstruct
the nature of theatrical presentation (Jérôme Bel)
and explore new choreographic constructs based
on the performer’s own experience and career
(Cédric Andrieux). 2014 marked the 30th anniversary
of the Ménagerie de Verre, founded
par Marie‑Thérèse Allier: the Fondation d’entreprise
Hermès partnered the celebrations, honouring this
iconic Paris art space dedicated to the commissioning
and presentation of new work at the forefront
of contemporary expressive forms.
Attentive to the emergence of new choreographic
languages, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès continues
to partner the Centre national de la danse (CND) under
its new director Mathilde Monnier. Unique
in the French cultural landscape as a centre for new
work, resources and artists’ residencies, the CND
is dedicated to the development and promotion
of the art of choreography, the presentation of dance works,
and the conservation and dissemination
of its permanent collections.
Paula Rosolen, Aerobics!, winner of Danse Élargie 2014 © Laurent Philippe
Danse élargie
Ménagerie de Verre
Théâtre de la Ville, 3 rd edition
Paris, France
Paris, France
Support in 2014
14 – 15 June 2014
Supported since 2010
Plastique Danse Flore
Centre national de la danse
Pantin, France
Supported since 2009, member of the Cercle CND‑Entreprises
Potager du Roi
Versailles, France
5 – 6 April 2014 (7th edition, 2nd part),
and 19 – 21 September 2014 (8th edition)
FESTIVAL D’AUTOMNE 2014 Support for performances
of Jérôme Bel and Cédric Andrieux
Aubervilliers, Paris and Nanterre, France September – November 2014 Supported in 2014
The third edition of Danse élargie attracted
over 300 entries from 37 countries.
1,500 spectators attended two days of competition at the
Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, for Danse élargie 2014.
Twelve teams of artists, including six choreographic projects, entertained
1,095 spectators and visitors at the 8th edition of Plastique Danse Flore
in September 2014. The Spring session of the 7th edition, in April 2014,
hosted nine teams of artists including six choreographic projects,
and attracted 1,005 spectators and visitors.
Jérôme Bel’s productions at Paris’s Festival d’Automne
drew an audience of 1,550 people over 12 dates.
61
Support
for design
Complementing its own international design award,
the Prix Émile Hermès, the Fondation d’entreprise
Hermès is a committed supporter of selected initiatives,
and a leading institution in this vibrant, creative field.
The Villa Noailles, Hyères, held its ninth international
festival of design in early July, 2014.The Fondation
d’entreprise Hermès is a regular supporter of the event
– Design Parade – a platform for design professionals
with a focus on new thinking and innovation, featuring
talks, workshops and an international competition
for young designers. Laura Couto Rosado won
the Grand Prix du Jury in 2014.The event culminates
in a series of exhibitions throughout the summer,
showcasing new design to the public at large.
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès also partners D’Days,
a major Paris event exploring tomorrow’s design world
around an annual theme (‘Movement’ in 2014). Aimed
at design professionals and the public at large, the event
features debates and exhibitions at a variety of venues
across Paris and the neighbouring town of Pantin.
An institutional supporter of D’Days – and in particular
the programme of public debates D’Talks –
the Foundation was also present ‘on the ground’,
with an exhibition of projects shortlisted
for the Prix Émile Hermès 2014, at Paris’s
Espace Commines.
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès continued its support
for the Bourse Agora design award and bursary,
awarded every two years to a designer under the age
of 40.The grant enabled 2013 winner Pierre Charrié
to develop his project Surfaces sonores (‘Sound surfaces’)
for the design of new forms for audio devices
in the home.
Last but not least, the Foundation remains a committed
supporter of Les Arts Décoratifs. Paris’s major
institution for conservation, exhibitions and training
in design and the decorative arts, it comprises
an acclaimed school and four museums dedicated
to preserving design heritage and teaching the designers
of tomorrow.
Design Parade 9
Villa Noailles
Hyères, France
4 – 7 July 2014
D’Days
Paris and Pantin, France
20 – 25 May 2014
Dylan Perrenoud for Laura Couto Rosado, HEAD, Grand Prix du Jury, Design Parade 2014, Villa Noailles, Hyères © DR
BOURSE AGORA DESIGN AWARD
France
Les Arts Décoratifs
Paris, France
Supported since 2008,
member of the Club des Partenaires
des Arts Décoratifs since 2009
Villa Noailles welcomed over 28,000 visitors for Design Parade 9,
including the festival and the exhibitions that continued until September.
Contents
Know‑how and transmission of skills
KNOW‑HOW AND TRANSMISSION OF SKILLS
64
Core issues and overview by Catherine Tsekenis
66
67
‘Creative breath’ by Patrick Jouin
68
78
The Skills Academy
Support for skills transfer and professional training
82
83
‘Creative breath’ by Valérie Boisvert
84
90
Call for projects: ‘Biodiversity and local knowledge’
The 2014 biodiversity conference
Partnering IDDRI
Supporting biodiversity
92
93
‘Creative breath’ by Valérie Crand
94
Initiatives for biodiversity
74
88
89
96
98
Call for projects ‘Biodiversity and local knowledge’, FloreS: collecting hawthorn blossom, France © Marie‑Claire/Régis Buffière
63
65
Know‑how
and transmission
Core issues and overview
by Catherine Tsekenis
Manual artisan skills continue to give many people
around the world the chance to achieve autonomy
and self‑determination. Manual trades are often
undervalued, yet this disaffection is misguided when
we consider the profound human need
for self‑fulfilment, and the importance of respecting
our environment.The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
explores a number of avenues in response to these issues.
In 2014, the Foundation launched its first Skills Academy,
as part of a range of activities designed to encourage
the transmission of artisan expertise.The Academy
is aimed at professionals seeking to develop their skills,
engage more profoundly with evolving trades and
materials, and explore new innovations.The first edition,
focusing on the world of wood, was directed with
tremendous energy and rigour by designer Patrick Jouin.
The Academy was a public success, too, with open
lectures and round‑table discussions featuring eminent
speakers and lively debate between the ‘Academicians’.
The realities of society today urge us to pay closer‑than‑ever
attention to the principles of responsible citizenship,
and to work for greater social cohesion. One tried and
tested solution involves ensuring that young people find
their place in society through access to a trade or profession,
providing them with a source of income and personal
fulfilment.With this in mind, the Foundation
has continued its support for NGOs delivering artisan
and artistic training: the Nubian Vault in West Africa,
the Cité internationale de la tapisserie et de l’art tissé
in Aubusson (France), and REDES in Rio de Janeiro’s
Maré favela. Before they can access apprenticeships, young
people need enhanced life skills, and the chance
to discover trades offering them new ways forward into
La Mine: beehives at the CAPC museum of contemporary art in Bordeaux, France © CAPC – Frédéric Duval
work and society. Supporting this, the Foundation works
with organisations such as Sport dans la ville in Lyon,
or Gol de Letra in Brazil.We choose a variety
of projects, large and small, based on our recognition
that rigorous, precise, tailored methodologies are central
to their success.
The same rigour applies to our selection of scientific
‘action and research’ programmes supported through
our annual call for projects in the field of biodiversity
and local knowledge. In 2014, the three teams
selected in 2013 carried out work in France (FloreS),
Colombia (RESEMINA) and Brazil (Agriculture
in the Rio Negro). Each project experiments
with new ways to help communities assert their rights
and promote practices rooted in traditional knowledge
while at the same time adapting their activities to take
account of environmental issues.
Throughout 2014, the Foundation’s programme H3
(Heart – Head – Hand) invited Hermès staff
to champion their favourite voluntary organisations
in the spheres of artisanship, cultural education
and environmental protection. Nineteen projects
active in these areas were selected for the Foundation’s
support over a two‑year period.
The projects supported by the Foundation pursue very
diverse ends, yet all are united in one thing: their
existence depends on the creative breath and energy
of the men and women committed to furthering
and sharing their work.
Supporting
artisanship
by Patrick Jouin
PARTNERS FOR PROGRESS
We are extremely fortunate here in France: we have a unique
heritage of artisan trades, linked to often ancestral skills and
know‑how.
Supporting artisanship means accompanying
established professionals as they deepen their
knowledge, to enrich their individual practice.
It means helping young people to find often
unexpected paths into new careers, too.
And ensuring artisan skills are handed down
and safeguarded for the future. Through
our own programme – the Skills Academy –
and our support for a wide range of partner
organisations and initiatives, the Fondation
d’entreprise Hermès is committed to working
But knowing that we have this extraordinarily rich legacy is not
enough – we must carry it forward into the future, too. This is why
the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès founded its Skills Academy:
the programme aims not only to acknowledge this exceptional
heritage, but to develop it for the next generation, contributing
to progress and innovation in the artisan professions by exploring
new, unimagined perspectives. This open outlook, this incitement
to dialogue is only made possible through shared encounters:
the teaching of skilled gestures and practices, the challenging
of those same gestures and practices, and confronting
the possibilities offered by technology and modern techniques.
The latter is, of course, central to the effort to adapt traditional skills
of every kind to our current and future needs.
with future and established artisans at every
stage in their careers, as they discover, build
and develop rewarding professional lives.
With this in mind, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès has created
an environment where Academicians can exchange their individual
perspectives, take a helicopter view of their field and learn with
a truly open mind. The Academy gives participants an unrivalled
opportunity to step aside from everyday practice, stand back,
enhance their own knowledge, discover new skills, and benefit from
the experience and know‑how of others. Safeguarding our heritage
means accepting that there will be challenges, breathing new life
into heritage skills, acknowledging and embracing progress so that
we can keep inventing, now and into the future.
Patrick Jouin
Designer,
programme director, Skills Academy 2014
67
Support for artisanship
Skills Academy
The Skills
Academy
Academicians
In 2014 the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès launched
the Skills Academy, a new programme promoting
knowledge‑sharing and innovation for artisans and creative
designers working with traditional materials and skills.
Each Academy gathers artisans, designers and engineers
of all ages to explore a central theme.The programme
focuses on the transmission of expertise across disciplines,
for collective intelligence in the service of innovation,
creativity and sustainability.
Directed by a guest designer, the Academy’s programme
includes a series of monthly lectures and panels open
to the public, followed by masterclasses for participating
Academicians only.The year ends with a workshop –
an experimental laboratory enabling artisans, designers
and engineers to implement their new knowledge
in practice.
1st edition
‘Xylomania! Skills and expertise in the world
of wood’
Programme director: Patrick Jouin, guest designer
10 artisans
6 designers
5 engineers
Ludovic Avenel
Sébastien Cordoleani
Victor Laurent
Pierre‑Éloi Bris
Johanna Hartzheim
Zoé Lombard
Jean‑Brieuc Chevalier
Krzysztof Lukasik
Pascal Triboulot
Hugo Delavelle
Fanette Pesch
François‑Xavier Vendeville
Pauline Faugère
Luther Quenum
Pierre Wozny
Richard Fournier
Jean‑Baptiste Sibertin‑Blanc
Paul Hoffmann
Fanny‑Laure Lepez Ghillebaert
Dominique Roger
Joseph Vallon
The first Skills Academy was devoted to wood, that most
essential, universal resource, exploited and worked
by mankind from our earliest beginnings.The programme
examined trades and practices in the world of wood,
with a focus on know‑how, innovation and sustainability.
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès invited French
designer Patrick Jouin to devise a programme building
month by month to explore every facet of the
medium and its related industries, culminating in the
Academicians’ summer workshop. Monthly morning
sessions (open to the public), and subsequent events
reserved for Academicians only, addressed the history
and traditions of wood‑working, contemporary
techniques, the status of wood in art, its experimental,
innovative applications, and its strategic potential today
as an environmentally sustainable resource.
Steering committee
Olivier Fournier
Managing director,
Pôle artisanal Hermès maroquinier sellier
Chantal Granier
Associate artistic director,
Hermès maison, Saint‑Louis, Puiforcat
Hugues Jacquet
Sociologist, external project manager,
Skills Academy
Clémence Miralles‑Fraysse
Project manager, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
Pascale Mussard
Artistic director, ‘petit h’
Anne‑Catherine Trépagne
Projects director,
Hermès International
Catherine Tsekenis
Patrick Jouin, programme director
for the Skills Academy 2014 © Tadzio
69
Skills Academy
Morning sessions
The first Skills Academy offered a carefully structured
programme of monthly morning sessions promoting
a deeper awareness of issues at the heart of tradition
and innovation in the world of wood. Open to the public,
the morning lectures and round‑table discussions
featured contributions from experts in a variety of sectors
and disciplines – academics, designers, researchers, artists,
engineers, students, publishers and more – sharing
their knowledge and expertise with an audience of fellow
professionals and aficionados.
The opening session was devoted to the functions
and applications of wood today – in contemporary
design, the artisan sector and industry – and its symbolic
importance in our history, culture and language
(with historian Michel Pastoureau and linguist
Henriette Walter, who presented ‘A wood‑lovers’
lexicon’).The second public session explored
wood‑working tools and manual skills,
with a discussion of diploma works submitted in 2012
by applied arts students in a variety of specialist artisan
disciplines, at Paris’s École Boulle. The session
subsequently explored developments in production
processes, and their capacity to extend the inherent
formal limitations of wood as a raw material.
Economics professor Stefano Micelli opened the third
session with an exploration of the relationship between
designer and artisan, followed by a discussion of how
technical developments may influence the use of wood
in design, and the emergence of a new aesthetic.
Marc Van Peteghem looked at the uses, status quo
and future of wood in naval architecture.
The fourth morning session considered R&D initiatives
and experimental studies of the wood‑working
techniques of tomorrow, including a presentation
by Nicolas Henchoz on the astonishing properties
of densified wood.
As a logical extension of this, the fifth session
examined wood as a sustainable resource. Joël Boulier
surveyed the cartography of the world’s forests,
and Jean‑François Dhôte addressed the impact
of climate change on wood as a renewable raw material.
Arnaud Godevin defined the precise uses of forest
resources today, and Philippe Schiesser explored
eco‑design and the circular economy in the context
of our renewed, intensified use of wood.
The sixth and final morning session explored
the ‘five senses’ of wood, and their specific uses, beginning
with Olivier Roellinger and Jean‑Claude Ellena
in conversation, exploring taste and aroma.The audience
was treated to a presentation on the sound of wood,
with Stéphane Vaiedelich and instrument‑maker
Miguel Henry, and finally, to the immersive experience
of wood installations by artist duo The Chapuisat
Brothers. Fine cuisine, fragrance, music and the visual
arts illustrated the stunning palette of possibilities offered
by this exceptional material.
Skills Academy: visiting Établissements Marotte in Saint‑Ouen, 8 February 2014 © Tadzio
Les Fondam
le bois dans entaux :
le design et l’artisanat,
les sc
de l’ingénieuriences
I
Les Outils
:
et les Gestes nels
dition
ou
des tils tra mériques
aux outils nu
11 h
« LA SYMBOL
IQUE DU BOI
S
ET DES MÉT
IERS
L’ÉPOQUE MÉD DU BOIS À
IÉVALE »
Michel Pastour
eau,
docteur en histo
ire, médiéviste,
directeur d’étude
s à l’École prat
ique
des hautes étud
es (Sorbonne)
12 h
« UN PETIT LEX
IQUE
AMOUREUX
DU BOIS »
Henriette Wal
ter, docteur ès
lettres,
docteur en lingu
istique
III
9h
9 h 30
« LE BOIS : DES
IGN, ARTISA
NAT
ET INDUSTRIE
»
Dialogue entr
e Patrick Jou
in
et Raymond
Guidot,
ingénieur, histo
rien et théoricie
n du
design, auteur
de nombreux
ouvrages
sur le design,
les techniques
et les
matériaux
s 2014
Le Lieu du Des
ign,
grande salle (rezde-chaussée
74, rue du Faub
gauche)
ourg Saint-An
toine, Paris 12e
II
ACCUEIL ET
INTRODUCT
ION
Catherine Tse
kenis, directrice
de la Fondatio
n d’entreprise
Hermès
Patrick Jouin,
desi
directeur pédago gner invité et
gique de l’Aca
démie
9h
VAUX
OUR DES TRA
DIALOGUE AUT DES DIPLÔMÉS
ES
DE FIN D’ÉTUD
DES
A (DIPLÔME
DM
DU
2
201
OLE
RT) DE L’ÉC
MÉTIERS D’A
LE RONDE)
BOULLE (TAB
Noirot
: Emmanuelle
Modérateurs
d’art
urs
esse
prof
et Éric Dubois,
appliqué
11 h 15
:
, BOIS TABLÉ
« BOIS TOURNÉ
S AU
TRADITIONNEL
DES OUTILS
EMENT
N RENOUVELL
SERVICE D’U
»
DE LA FORME
el, tourneur
Grégory Bod
designer
vier Balléry,
François-Xa
ition
la maison d’éd
de
rs
cteu
Dire
lac»
au
feu
le
«Y’a pas
« UN PANORA
MA DU
CHANGEMEN
T»
Modérateur :
Stefano Micelli,
professeur asso
cié d’économie
à
l’université Ca’F
oscari de Veni
se,
auteur de Futu
ro artigiano
(Marsilio, 2011)
Riccardo Blum
er, designer et
Renato Stau
ffacher des éditi
ons Alias
Les étapes de
conception et
de
fabrication de
l’assise « Leggera
»
Erwan Bouroul
lec, designer
Les étapes de
conception et
de
fabrication de
l’assise «Osso»,
de la chaise «Ste
elwood» et de
la
collection «Co
penhague»
11 h 15
« LE BOIS ET
LE DESIGNER
:
COMMENT LES
ÉVOLUTION
S
TECHNIQUE
S CONTRIBUE
NTELLES À L’ÉM
ERGENCE
D’UNE ESTHÉT
IQUE NOUVEL
LE ? »
Dialogue entr
e Patrick Jou
in et
Constance Rub
ini, historienn
e d’art,
spécialiste du
design, directrice
du
musée des Arts
décoratifs de
Bordeaux
12 h
« L’USAGE DU
BOIS DANS
L’ARCHITEC
TURE NAVALE
:
ÉTAT DES LIEU
X, ÉVOLUTION
PERSPECTIVES
ET
»
Marc Van Pete
ghem, architect
e naval
Skills Academy: morning session, Thinking about tomorrow: New developments
in wood and wood‑working techniques, auditorium of the École du Louvre, Paris,
5 April 2014 © Tadzio
Skills Academy: morning sessions © Undo Redo
V
Samedi 8 mar
ier 2014
Samedi 8 févr
national
Conservatoire
iers,
des arts et mét
Abbé Grégoire e
amphithéâtre
rtin, Paris 3
t-Ma
292, rue Sain
ée)
mus
le
(entrée par
9h
Samedi 17 mai
2014
Théâtre des Bou
ffes du Nord
37 bis, bouleva
rd
de la Chapelle
, Paris 10e
Matière et Te
chniques 1
La nouvelle mo
dernité
du bois
l’évolution ac:
tuelle
des techniqu
es
et du matériau
Samedi 11 janv
ier 2014
Conservatoire
national
des arts et mét
iers,
amphithéâtre
Abbé Grégoire
292, rue Sain
t-Martin, Paris e
3
(entrée par le
musée)
Réfléchir la co
ntr
pour un usagainte :
durable du bo e
is
Programme
des matinales publiques
inscriptions : academie@hermes.com
sences :
Sensuelles ess sens
ce que no
du bois
nous disent
Samedi 14 juin
chniques 2
Matière et Te in ?
Et dema
ues
niq
ch
Te
is
et matériau bo
en devenir
l 2014
Samedi 5 avri
Auditorium
Louvre
de l’école du
er
ousel, Paris 1
place du Carr
IV
9 h 30
« LA RESSOU
RCE
MATÉRIAU REN EN BOIS : UN
OUVELABLE
MAIS
DANS QUELLE
S LIMITES ? »
Modérateur :
Hugues Jacque
t,
sociologue, mas
ter « Développem
durable et resp
ent
onsabilité des
organisations
», Paris-Dauph
ine
Joël Boulier,
docteur en géo
graphie –
Paris I, coauteur
avec Laurent
Simon
de l’Atlas de la
forêt (Autrement,
Paris,
2009)
Jean-François
Dhôte, chef
du départemen
t Recherche et
Développement,
Office national
des
forêts, spécialist
e des conséqu
ences
du changement
climatique sur
le
couvert forestier
français
Arnaud Godevin
, ingénieur, direc
de l’ESB Nan
teur
tes - École supé
rieure du
bois
11 h 15
9 h 30
« LE BOIS :
ECONOMIE
CIRCULAIRE
ET ÉCO-CONCE
PTION »
Philippe Sch
iesser, ingénieu
r en
éco-conception
« LE BOIS :
OVATION »
R & D ET INN
Patrick Jouin
Modérateur :
Lengefeld,
nschmit von
–
Andreas Klei
n & Recherches
vatio
directeur Inno
Forêt
technologique
FCBA (Institut
ction
stru
- con
Cellulose Bois
Ameublement)
ingénieur,
d, architecte,
Yves Weinan
–
Institut du Bois
directeur IBOIS
de
nique fédérale
tech
poly
le
Éco
L)
(EPF
Lausanne
du EPFL
choz, directeur
Nicolas Hen
de
nique fédérale
le
(École polytech
L (École cantona
Lausanne) & ECA
) LAB
d’art de Lausanne
2014
Petit Palais
Auditorium du
s 8e
Churchill, Pari
avenue Winston
VI
9 h 30
L’ON GOÛTE…
« LE BOIS QUE
SENT »
ET QUE L’ON
er, chef étoilé,
Olivier Roelling
épices
spécialiste des
ur
Ellena, parfume
Jean-Claude
11 h
E DU BOIS »
« À L’ÉCOUT
delich, directeur
Stéphane Vaie
et de
de recherche
ire
rato
labo
du
ique musée de la Mus
restauration du
accompagné
ique
mus
Cité de la
icien(ne)
mus
er
(e)
luthi
d’un
ry,
gné
Hen
mpa
uel
acco
de Mig
11 h 45
FORÊT :
BOIS ET LA
»
« L’ARBRE, LE
D’UN ARTISTE
POINTS DE VUE at, artiste plasticien
té
puis
invi
n
y Cha
gorticie
Gréplas
Un
12 h 30
N
CONCLUSIO
kenis, directrice
Catherine Tse
Hermès
n d’entreprise
de la Fondatio
et
designer invité
Patrick Jouin,
démie
gique de l’Aca
directeur pédago
71
Skills Academy
The workshop
Held in August, the eight‑day workshop
at the École supérieure du bois de Nantes was led
by guest designer and Academy programme director
Patrick Jouin. Academicians were invited to collaborate
on the design and furnishings of a decision‑making
centre. Acknowledging the potential of such centres
to influence the outcomes of processes of arbitration,
their furnishings and fittings were identified as a factor
of increasing and strategic importance for private
businesses and public institutions alike.
Responding to the brief, the Academicians produced
full‑size and scale models for a self‑contained pavilion
designed to be easily dismantled and transported,
together with internal fittings including a modular
conference table seating up to 30 people, a lectern,
and outdoor seating for break‑out conversations.
The designs showcased the technical and aesthetic
properties of wood, drawing on each participant’s
expertise and new knowledge acquired during
the Academy’s first semester. Conceived as a collective,
experimental forum, the workshop focused on the practical
implementation of contemporary innovations
impacting the inherent properties of the ancestral
medium of wood.
Divided into five groups, each comprising artisans,
designers and engineers, the Academicians produced
projects designed to showcase the medium of wood,
and to convey a sense of efficiency, solemnity, sobriety
and modernity, while at the same time respecting
the confidentiality of the decision‑making process
and facilitating the on‑site communication of its outcomes.
Skills Academy: guided visit in the Forest of Fontainebleau, 12 January 2014 © Tadzio
Around 200 people attended each morning session,
in addition to the participating Academicians.
Masterclasses – for Academicians only
Following each morning session, the Academicians
took part in talks and visits designed to enhance
and extend the insights gained during the public
lectures and discussions. The first masterclass visited
the Établissements Georges, artisan suppliers of rare
and fine woods cut using techniques dating back
to the 19th century, and hence ideal for historic
restoration projects. The visit was complemented
by a day in the Palace and Forest of Fontainebleau,
embracing wood from its raw to most finished state:
presentations of heritage pieces and exceptional
restoration projects by curators at the palace
were followed by a guided tour of the forest with
forester‑engineers from France’s Office national des
forêts, offering an insight into the business and practices
of managed commercial forestry.
The Academicians subsequently visited two more
businesses – Établissements Marotte for an insight
into the evolution of tools and techniques for slicing
and veneering, and Établissements Dumoulin,
specialists in thermo‑treatment processes designed
to enhance the natural properties of wood.
Deepening their understanding of current innovations,
the Academicians visited the exhibition Sous pression,
le bois densifié (‘Under pressure: densified wood’)
at the Arts Décoratifs in Paris, exploring the applications
of this new technology in objects developed
by EPFL + ECAL Lab in Lausanne.
The penultimate workshop took the Academicians
to the Halle Pajol in Paris’s 18th arrondissement,
remodelled by architect Françoise‑Hélène Jourda, who
gave a presentation on the ecological and structural
properties of wood for construction and interior
architecture alike.
Beyond the formal Academy programme, participants collaborated on a variety
of projects across their respective disciplines.
Proceedings of the first Skills Academy will be co‑published in 2015
by Actes Sud and the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès.
Applications from prospective Academicians
for the programme’s second edition, ‘Grounded!’
(exploring clay and ceramics), were processed and selected throughout 2014.
The final masterclass, led by chef Olivier Roellinger, took
the form of a series of ‘tastings’ of the many species
of wood encountered throughout the year.
Skills Academy: workshop at the École supérieure du bois, Nantes, August 2014 © Tadzio
Patrick Jouin and the Academicians at the final workshop,
August 2014 © Tadzio
73
Know‑how and transmission of skills Supporting artisanship Support for skills transfer and professional training
Support for skills transfer
and professional training
Ancestral skills have a vital role to play in modern
society, perpetuating professional heritage as part
of the contemporary economy.With this in mind,
the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès supports a range
of organisations and initiatives committed
to the preservation and development of traditional
artisan know‑how.
The Foundation supports a three‑year training programme
for a loom‑setting instructor at the Aubusson textile
workshops, ensuring that the traditional tapestry‑weaving
skills first developed in the region almost six hundred years
ago are handed down to future generations. In addition
to preserving this ancestral skill, the instructor contributes
to conservation and curatorial work at Aubusson’s
international textile cluster, the Cité internationale
de la tapisserie et de l’art tissé, giving masterclasses
and hosting residential courses for qualified professionals.
The Foundation’s support for the not‑for‑profit association
The Nubian Vault reflects the same commitment
to preserve and promote traditional skills – in this case
clay architecture using the Nubian vault technique
in Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. It has provided robust,
sustainable, economical housing for some 17,000 people
to date.The association has launched its own academy,
delivering intensive, short training courses for artisans
committed to training others in turn. Skills transfer
is the core aim of the not‑for‑profit association
La Kora-PRD in Senegal (a partner of the international
organisation Frères des Hommes), providing two‑year
courses in joinery for young people outside mainstream
education.The Foundation is a committed supporter
of the programme, raising the profile of quality artisan skills
through client recognition and appreciation and delivering
comprehensive professional training, from literacy
to design and the mastery of essential tools. Lastly,
in Algeria the Foundation supports Touiza Solidarité,
a not‑for‑profit organisation working to preserve
traditional craft skills in the Kabylie region.The programme
promotes inter‑generational training for young
craftspeople seeking to set up their own artisan businesses.
In Georgia, the not‑for‑profit association Caritas
delivers professional training to young people from
underprivileged backgrounds, focusing on the transmission
of traditional icon‑making skills, across generations.
In the Greek village of Soufli – once an important
centre for European silk‑making – the same approach
underpins the regeneration of this traditional industry,
handing down ancestral skills such as cocoon reeling,
weaving and more. Steered by the not‑for‑profit
association La Soie des Hellènes, the project supports
the re‑launch of this important artisan sector
for the contemporary market.
ll four projects highlight the importance of preserving
A
and developing ancestral skills and the artisan professions,
as key vectors for economic development.
Cité internationale
de la tapisserie
et de l’art tissé
Caritas Georgia
Tbilisi, Georgia
Aubusson and Felletin, France
La Voûte Nubienne
West Africa
La Soie des Hellènes
Cité internationale de la tapisserie: Nadia Petkovic
weaves a contemporary verdure tapestry by Quentin Vaulot
and Goliath Dyèvre, Aubusson, France
© Cité internationale de la tapisserie, Aubusson
LA KORA-PRD
AND FRÈRES DES HOMMES
Soufli, Greece
In Tbilisi, 114 participants have graduated from the Caritas Georgia
Iconography department over the past four years. 35 have gone on to further
studies at university institutes or professional training programmes.
25 students have found employment with artisan workshops or specialist
boutiques.
Touba and Kolda, Senegal
120,000 silkworms were reared in Soufli in September 2014, for the first
phase of the re‑launch of silk production initiated by La Soie des Hellènes.
Touiza Solidarité
Algeria
Five new loom‑setting workshops were opened at Aubusson
and Felletin in 2014.
The Nubian Vault extended its reach to two new countries – Benin and Ghana
– in 2014. The association received the 2014 Momentum for Change
award, presented by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) at the COP 20 climate change conference in Lima, Peru.
In Senegal, Frères des Hommes enabled 75 apprentices to perfect
their arithmetic, geometry and French language skills; 30 more received
training in essential joinery skills.
Touiza Solidarité: works by Mme Ouardia (potter) and Amar Lounas
(architect and designer) at Archi’terre, the international festival for earth architecture
in Tlemcen, Algeria © Amar Lounas
In 2014, Touiza Solidarité completed administrative preparations
for the project launch in 2015.
Frères des Hommes: a training collective in Touba,
Senegal © Frères des Hommes
75
Know‑how and transmission of skills Supporting artisanship Support for skills transfer and professional training
In Rio de Janeiro, en collaboration with the not‑for‑profit
association REDES, the Escola Livre de Dança da Maré
(ELDM) has established itself as a forum for the teaching
of choreographic skills, with choreographer Lia Rodrigues
and her company.Young people from the Maré favela
receive professional dance training on the programme,
which was originally designed for 15 students,
but welcomed 19 participants aged 17 to 26 in 2014.
In France, the Fondation Royaumont hosts a variety
of projects, including the Programme Recherche
et Composition Chorégraphiques (PRCC),
a residential course in experimental choreography
and choreographic composition, under director
Hervé Robbe. Robbe is also the founder of Prototype,
an annual programme of professional training for ten
choreographers.Working with a diverse line‑up of guest
teachers and speakers, participants on the 2013‑14
programme explored the theme of ‘potential
choreographic spaces’; the 2014‑15 session will focus
on ‘the vocal presence in the choreographic score’.
Fondation Royaumont
(Prototype programme)
In 2014, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès supported
a Franco‑Japanese initiative centred on traditional
paper‑making skills, including an international
conference on industrial paper manufacturing,
held in France. At the Musée des arts et métiers,
the Foundation financed the restoration of a length
of printed silk from the Haussmann frères factory.
As a continuing member of the Cercle de l’IFM
(patrons of the Institut français de la mode),
the Foundation contributed to support for post‑graduate
bursaries and research projects.
Asnières‑sur‑Oise, France
Paper‑making skills
France/Japan
REDES – Escola Livre
de Dança da Maré
Musée des arts et métiers
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Fondation Royaumont: workshop with Thomas Hauert and choreographers on the Prototype 1 course, France, 2014 © Laurent Paillier
Paris, France
Cercle de l’Institut
français de la mode
Paris, France
In 2014, four young trainees from the Escola Livre
de Dança da Maré were invited to a residency in La Rochelle
(western France) as part of an international exchange.
In December 2014, a new work – Exercice M, mouvement et de maré –
was performed at the École municipale artistique in Vitry‑sur‑Seine.
In 2014, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès – a long‑time
supporter of the Fondation Royaumont – joined celebrations
for its golden jubilee, including support for a day of dance
on 6 September, entitled Songe chorégraphique à Royaumont.
REDES, Escola Livre de Dança da Maré:
class with Jonathan Pranlas‑Descours and Christophe Béranger
(Sine Qua Non Art company), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil © Elisangela Leite
77
Know‑how and transmission
Promoting
new trades and
artisan careers
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès supports
organisations dedicated to raising awareness of specific
professions and trades among a variety of audiences,
including young people from underprivileged or unstable
backgrounds, disengaged from mainstream education,
or experiencing social or cultural exclusion.
Our supported projects encourage their young
participants to discover new trades and careers to which
they may otherwise have had no access.
Union Rempart gives volunteers from Paris
and its suburbs, aged 18 to 25, the chance to discover
new skills and trades by contributing to restoration
projects at heritage sites across the whole Ile‑de‑France
region. Led by professional artisans, the young
volunteers discover traditional craft techniques, and take
part in group projects promoting social and cultural
exchange and the acquisition of new skills.
Create! at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London
is another project aimed at encouraging young people
to take a proactive approach to discovering new trades
and careers.Targeting a young audience aged 16 to 24,
the programme encourages participants to engage
actively with the museum’s work, and to discover
a variety of careers in the creative industries
(design, graphics, textiles, photography, fashion). Participation
is wholly voluntary; individuals are free to attend classes
and workshops in the discipline of their choice.
In Brazil, the Gol de Letra Foundation encourages
young people from underprivileged neighbourhoods
to discover new skills designed to develop their
creativity and help them engage more effectively
with society as a whole, forging social networks
as part of the drive to pacify troubled communities.
Young people aged 14 to 20 attend workshops combining
cultural and communication skills, in preparation
for the world of work.
In the Greater Lyon region, in central eastern France,
the not‑for‑profit association Sport dans la Ville
steers two projects designed to combat social exclusion
among young people aged 14 to 20. ‘Job dans la Ville’
encourages young people to discover new skills
and careers through simulated interviews and support
from mentors in business and industry. ‘L dans la Ville’
enables girls aged 11 and up to take part in sporting
and cultural activities, and offers them help and advice
as they explore future careers.
Union Rempart: discovering stone cutting,
traditional masonry and joinery in the village of Tusson,
France, June 2014 © Rempart
Gol de Letra Foundation
Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil
Sport dans la Ville
Greater Lyon, France
Victoria & Albert Museum: Create! programme workshop,
London, UK © Victoria & Albert Museum
Gol de Letra Foundation: graffiti art workshop,
São Paulo, Brazil © Gol de Letra
Union Rempart
France
In 2014, Union Rempart extended its reach to five new regions,
almost doubling the number of young people involved in restoration
work at the scheme’s heritage sites, from 44 to 81.
In 2014, 12 volunteers joined CreateVoice, a project to design activities
for young visitors to London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.
The Gol de Letra Foundation project attracted a record
224 participants in 2014 (119 girls and 105 boys).
Create! at the Victoria
& Albert Museum
In 2014, 650 girls took part in activities with the programme ‘L dans la Ville’ (up from 550 in 2013).
‘Job dans la Ville’ helped 600 young people in 2014,
up from 450 in 2013.
London, United Kingdom
Sport dans la Ville: the Rhône‑Alpes class of 2014‑2015 (‘Job dans la Ville’)
with programme partners and mentors, France © Sport dans la ville
79
Museum of Arts and Design
New York, United States
Rencontres
chorégraphiques
internationales
Seine‑Saint‑Denis, France
Sèvres - Cité de la céramique
Paris, France
Supported since 2008, founder member of the Cercle des mécènes
de Sèvres - Cité de la céramique (the Circle of Patrons
at the Sèvres porcelain factory).
Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine‑Saint‑Denis: Anti qui t’es, Sush Tenin, France, 2014 © DR
In 2014, support from the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
enabled activity leaders on the Arts Reach programme
at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design (MAD)
to forge closer links with the city’s education
department, promoting access to art and artisan skills
for young people experiencing difficulties in mainstream
education.The project enables pupils to take part
in workshops, discover hidden talents and develop their
self‑esteem through new, creative activities.
In the north of Paris, Rencontres chorégraphiques
internationales de Seine‑Saint‑Denis takes a similar
approach, encouraging young people to discover
the world of contemporary dance. Complementing
its annual programme of performances and events,
the festival organises numerous outreach activities
for schools: pupils are introduced to the world
of contemporary dance and attend workshops
exploring life skills and interpersonal relationships.
This leads to collective, creative projects designed
to help each participant discover new potential
and fulfilment.
In 2014, the Foundation also supported
Tara (India), AROP and the not‑for‑profit association
La Source (France).
In 2014, the Museum of Arts and Design’s Arts Reach programme was
extended from 10 to 13 centres across New York City, from Manhattan
to the Bronx, reaching 2,200 young participants. The City’s Department
of Education recognises the impact and value of the programme,
working with young people from severely underprivileged backgrounds.
The ‘Portrait, portrait de groupe’ project (part of the
Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales
de Seine‑Saint‑Denis) reached 660 school pupils aged 11 to 18,
working alongside students at the Conservatoire de Montreuil.
Seven classes (162 pupils) took part in the project
Les Petits Dégourdis de Sèvres, including one class of children aged 11,
five classes aged 7 to 9 and one class for handicapped children.
In the Hauts‑de‑Seine, near Paris,
Les Petits Dégourdis de Sèvres runs ceramics
workshops for children from schools across
the department, including participants with special
needs. Led by designer Christian Biecher, the 2013‑14
programme explored the theme of Art Deco.
The 2014‑15 programme, led by photographer
Sophie Zénon, explores the theme of artisan gestures
and trades in the applied arts. Pupils are encouraged
to observe and analyse traditional ceramics skills
before producing their own work, culminating
in a group exhibition.
Sèvres - Cité de la céramique: school groups on the programme Les Petits Dégourdis de Sèvres, France, 2014
© Sèvres - Cité de la céramique
81
Harnessing
knowledge
for
biodiversity
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès recognises
the need to safeguard our planet’s ecological
balance for future generations. To this end,
we support a number of projects dedicated
to the preservation of biodiversity.
The Foundation’s action for biodiversity
takes a variety of forms. In partnership with
the Institute for Sustainable Development
and International Relations in Paris (IDDRI),
we intervene upstream in the scientific action
and research process, with an international call
for projects and an annual conference focusing
on biodiversity research. Paralleling our two major
programmes, we support action by projects
tackling the erosion of biodiversity at the local
level, implementing rigorous practices to ensure
by Valérie Boisvert
The biodiversity of our wild or farmed flora and fauna, and their
resulting products, is closely linked to the diversity of cultures,
identities, specific local knowledge and expertise around
the world. Down the generations, plants have been selected
as foodstuffs for their flavour or texture. The continuing
popularity of traditional, plant‑based medicinal and cosmetic
treatments supports the preservation of natural diversity
in plants and animals alike. The diversity of our natural and
cultural heritage at the local level is a force for resistance in the
face of globalisation and the creeping homogenisation of our
different ways of life. Important areas of empirical and scientific
knowledge – the gestures and knowledge connected to
agriculture, wild plant gathering and livestock rearing –
are intimately connected with biodiversity. They are both
inspired by it and play a role in its preservation. Harnessing this
knowledge is an ideal way to promote the protection of
biodiversity and, beyond this, to encourage ‘difference’ and
variety in our relationship to the natural world. While experts
announce the coming of the sixth wave of extinctions since
the beginning of life on Earth, the Fondation d’entreprise
Hermès works on its own scale, supporting and breathing life
into projects that highlight the importance and subtlety of the
links between local knowledge and biodiversity.
their natural environment is respected. Conscious
of the importance of biodiversity as a factor
for environmental sustainability, we take steps
to communicate these measures in the context
of a wider commitment to achieve maximum public
awareness of this vital issue.
valérie boisvert
The Foundation harnesses expertise at all levels
– from researchers, artisans, agriculturalists
and innovators – to fight the growing threat
to ecosystems across our planet.
Economist, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), France
Professor at the Institute of Geography and Sustainability,
Geoscience and Environment faculty at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Member of the selection committee for the call for projects on ‘Biodiversity and local knowledge’ supported by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
83
Call for projects
Call for projects:
‘Biodiversity
and local knowledge’
2014 Winners
Adaptation strategies and heterogeneity of local
knowledge faced with standardisation processes
Launched in 2013 in partnership with IDDRI,
the annual call for scientific action and research projects
is part of the Foundation’s commitment to highlight
the importance of local knowledge – already recognised
for its intangible heritage status – as a vital factor in
supporting biodiversity. The aim is not necessarily
to preserve the natural world intact from human activity,
but rather to safeguard our planet’s environmental
balance by preserving, developing and communicating
the traditional knowledge beyond the sphere
of its local custodians, who are themselves fully aware
of its importance.
Selection committee
In this context, the second call for projects,
under the title Adaptation strategies and heterogeneity
of local knowledge faced with standardisation processes,
aims to analyse the capacity of local actors to react
and innovate in the face of increasing standardisation,
and the constraints and norms imposed by the global
economic framework.Three teams in France,
Brazil and Colombia were selected to work with
a variety of communities (agriculturalists and wild
plant gatherers), each the active custodian of specific
know‑how in contexts of distinctive biodiversity;
and each confronted with the instigation of new
norms likely to endanger their traditions and expertise,
and ultimately their identity. The three research teams
received financial grants over a two‑year period
(2014 to 2015), in support of their work with local
players committed to the preservation and amelioration
of traditional practices, while at the same time
recognising their invaluable cultural heritage status.
RESEMINA
Swissaid Colombia
Location: Colombia
Duration: 24 months
Aims: to reinforce the network of local and native seed banks
as an alternative resource, safeguarding communities, local
knowledge, biodiversity and food security in rural Colombia.
Following the suspension of a project to regulate
the certification of seed varieties in Colombia, rural
farming communities are seeking new negotiating
terms with the national government, in opposition
to lobbying from multinational seed producers selling
genetically modified products. Communities are
anxious to prevent the standardisation of agriculture,
and to encourage decision‑makers to take account
of their specific contexts and needs. Local farmers
have developed knowledge adapted to the biodiversity
Economist at the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD),
France
Hélène Ilbert
Researcher and teacher at the Institut agronomique méditerranéen
de Montpellier (IAMM), France
Lecturer in Social Anthropology, Institut des régions chaudes,
Montpellier SupAgro, France
Bernard Roussel
Ethnobotanist and professor at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle,
Paris, France
Anne‑Catherine Trépagne
Director of projects, Hermès International
The second call for projects drew submissions from leading
players in the field: NGOs, think tanks, university research
teams and specialist not‑for‑profit organisations.
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès received 95 application letters.
A third of the projects focused on Africa, fourteen on south Asia,
thirteen on South America and ten on Europe, while seven were on an
international scale. The rest featured projects in other areas.
The programme’s second call for projects confirmed its
recognition throughout the international scientific community.
The RESEMINA project seeks to preserve this
agricultural biodiversity by supporting rural
communities and seed custodians. Fifteen ‘seed houses’
will be established, where producers can work with
scientific teams to preserve and classify their seeds.
This approach aims to enshrine the recognition of local
knowledge at the heart of the project, with expert
technical support from the scientific teams, who will
work to establish a protocol for the multiplication,
preservation and dissemination of fine quality seeds,
backed by guarantee.
In the long term, safeguarding traditional knowledge
will not only contribute to the amelioration of local
expertise, but will inform and enrich the national debate
prior to the implementation of a certificate of special
status for locally sourced, farm‑produced seeds.
At the end of the programme’s first year, support from
the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès enabled
the three teams to embark on their respective projects,
with local communities.
Valérie Boisvert
Pascale Maizi
of their surrounding environment: they have cultivated,
selected, protected and multiplied their seed varieties.
They know the particular properties of each plant
species, and are able to draw on a wide range of seeds
as an alternative to mainstream agriculture, giving local
farmers the ability to adapt as effectively as possible
to local conditions.
Call for projects ‘Biodiversity and local knowledge’, RESEMINA project in Colombia:
drying seeds on the Cañamomo Lomaprieta reserve, Colombia
© Mauricio García. Campaña Semillas de Identidad photographic collection, SWISSAID
85
FloreS
Call for projects
Agriculture in the Rio Negro
expertise and knowledge, to counter the threat from
unregulated gatherers and to protect local biodiversity
from the dangers of over‑harvesting.
Université de Lausanne –
Institut de géographie et durabilité,
Switzerland
Location: France
Duration: 24 months
Aims: to raise awareness of the biodiversity of wild flora
in mainland France and to draw up a code of best practice based
on the knowledge and skills of professional wild plant collectors.
In France, the FloreS project contributes to the recognition
of an activity rooted in ancestral skills and know‑how,
namely the harvesting of wild plants by professional
gatherers working in harmony with the seasons.Wild plant
gatherers are sophisticated connoisseurs of France’s rural
biodiversity and attentive stewards of their respective
‘stations’ (the sites where the sought‑after flowers and buds
are collected).
Today, their activity is faced with a growing demand
for wild plants from producers on an often industrial
scale – makers of cosmetics, infusions and, of course,
phytopharmaceuticals – as consumers turn increasingly
from petrochemical to natural products.With their
profession poised to develop as never before, it is vital
that traditional gatherers legitimise their practice,
FloreS aims to draw up a national charter based
on the skills and standards upheld by professional
gatherers, and to compile a repertory of their
knowledge and expertise as the basis for a code of best
practice in relation to specific resources, territories
and industries.The project also contributes to scientific
debate on the preservation of biodiversity.
The Foundation supports FloreS through the organisation
of four workshops designed to encourage professionals
to work together to compile the repertory of plant‑gathering
practices. By establishing a professional federation,
gatherers hope to raise awareness of the importance
of responsible harvesting among industry players
and consumers alike, so that the commercial rush to exploit
natural, wild ingredients will not prove harmful
to wild plants and their habitats. Enhanced recognition
and regulation of the growers’ professional practice
will promote a sustainable approach to wild plant collecting
now and into the future.
Call for projects ‘Biodiversity and local knowledge’, FloreS: high summer on the Causse Méjean in Lozère,
collecting wild lavender flowers, France © Alain Lagrave
UMR 208,
PALOC Local heritage/IRD,
France
Location: north‑west Brazil
Duration: 24 months
Aims: to establish a partnership with Amerindian populations
to promote local knowledge and indigenous products in support
of agricultural diversity in the Brazilian Amazon.
The agricultural systems of the Rio Negro were given
Intangible Heritage status in Brazil in 2010:
safeguarding this knowledge, and the extraordinary
diversity of cultivated plants with which it is associated,
has become a national issue.The project aims to support
traditional forms of production in the face of increasing
standardisation in agriculture, driven by the need
to supply growing demand in Brazil’s cities.
The scientific project teams wish to preserve these
diverse food resources – and their associated specialist
know‑how – by helping local populations to reach
a wider market without sacrificing their rich variety
of output. The project aims to boost demand
by promoting indigenous produce in school refectories
and neighbouring market towns.
Action to promote the Rio Negro’s rich variety
of indigenous produce is part of a wider project steered
by Brazil’s National Institute of Historic and Artistic
Heritage, encompassing a variety of other schemes.
There are plans for publications, a poster campaign
and an exhibition at the Amazon Natural History Museum
in Manaus. Cultural heritage initiatives are reaching
out across sectors in support of the Rio Negro project,
which is based on the dissemination of knowledge,
techniques and plants.
Call for projects ‘Biodiversity and local knowledge’, Agriculture in the Rio Negro: cupuí, a plant of the cocoa family, Brazil
© L. Emperaire‑IRD/Pacta
87
Harnessing knowledge for biodversity
confErence
The 2014
biodiversity conference
Saving biodiversity: is innovation the cure?
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, 13 June 2014
Co‑organised by the Fondation d’entreprise
Hermès and IDDRI at the Bibliothèque nationale
de France, the 5th annual international conference
was devoted to the role of innovation – its contribution
and limitations – in the preservation of biodiversity.
The day‑long event drew speakers from a broad range
of institutions around the world.They compared expertise
and proposed ways to pilot technical and organisational
innovation away from conflict and towards working
in synergy with upholding biological diversity.
The high cost of access to technological innovations
posed the risk of a two‑tier approach to biodiversity,
in the context of reduced knowledge and technology
transfer between Northern and Southern countries.
Shared access to technology, data and their processing
and implementation emerged as an issue of central
importance for greater solidarity and social justice.
Innovation in agriculture should be regulated
to ensure the equitable sharing and distribution
of its benefits. Above all, we need to re‑think
our perception of environmental regulation, so that
it is not seen as an obstacle to economic activity,
but as an opportunity to advance and promote knowledge,
research and innovation.
Contributions and debate throughout the day
highlighted the need to anticipate potential links
between biodiversity and innovation in order to limit
the latter’s potentially negative impact. The issue’s
political dimension further highlighted the need
for communities, civil society and policy‑makers to access,
organise and exploit the available data and tools
for more effective management of ecosystems.
Speakers highlighted the importance of transparency
in communicating decision‑making processes, together
with strengthening the capacities of stakeholders.
Technological innovation was observed to be conditioned
by the existence of organisational and socio‑economic
innovations, highlighting the need for a review of the
governance of key players, and the ways in which they
appropriate innovations.
Partnering
IDDRI
Rooted in our shared values and concerns, the Foundation’s
partnership with IDDRI (the Institute for Sustainable
Development and International Relations)
was established in 2009 to define a common institutional
stance, and an initial programme of joint projects.
Both institutions respect the value of long‑term research
and investigation for a better understanding of the vital
issue of biodiversity. Both also share a cross‑disciplinary
perspective embracing environmental, cultural, societal
and economic factors, and a determination to communicate
research results as widely and accessibly as possible: research
findings are the building blocks for future global policy.
It is in this context that the Foundation and IDDRI
have come together as natural partners, organising two
calls for projects focused on scientific action and research,
and an annual conference on biodiversity (since 2010).
The Foundation’s support for external projects in this
essential field also includes IDDRI’s three‑year research
programme, INVALUABLE.
Biodiversity conference 2014 – Saving biodiversity:
is innovation the cure? Bibliothèque nationale de France,
Paris, France, 13 June 2014 © IDDRI
Harnessing knowledge for biodversity
IDDRI
89
Know-how and transmission of skills
Supporting
biodiversity
In addition to our own programmes for biodiversity,
the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès partners specific
external projects working to preserve ecosystems around
the world.
Launched by IDDRI in 2012, with nine partner
organisations across Europe, INVALUABLE
is a research programme aimed at producing
a critical analysis of market instruments likely to halt
the erosion of biodiversity. Following a series of field
studies in 2013, researchers have begun to report
their findings at two international gatherings:
the biennial conference of the International Society
for Ecological Economics (ISEE) held in Reykjavik
(Iceland) in August 2014, and the 12th Conference
of the Parties to the Convention on Biological
Diversity (COP12), held in Pyeongchang (Korea)
in October 2014. INVALUABLE organised a side event
at COP12, debating the role of innovative financial
mechanisms (IFMs) as part of the Strategy for Resource
Mobilization.The researchers’ final recommendations
will be presented at a closing conference in Paris
in June 2015, and in its subsequent published proceedings.
while the INDP responds to calls for support from new
families eager to join the programme.
In Bolivia, the Foundation supports the work
of Conservation International, partnering artisan
food production by local communities living
in the Madidi National Park (one of the world’s richest
biodiversity reserves) and the Pilón Lajas Biosphere.
The project aims to raise living standards for local
people through the development of a quality artisan
sector drawing on ancestral skills and respecting natural
resources. Artisan cooperatives have been formed
to promote sustainable forest management, and to develop
products adapted to national and international markets.
Distributed commercially under the WALISUMA label,
with ‘green design’ certification, their output enjoys
a high profile and wide acclaim in Bolivia, generating
enhanced revenues for the artisans involved.
Lastly, in Paris, an original initiative
at the Opéra Comique caught
the Foundation’s attention. As a live theatre
company, the Opéra Comique runs its own
costume workshop, which wholly converted
to the use of natural dyes in 2012.Vegetable
and (occasionally) animal dyes have replaced
chemical colorants. The pigments are completely
eco‑friendly, harmless to users and the environment,
and the dye‑vats can be re‑used. The initiative
demonstrates how biodiversity issues permeate every
aspect of life, in a wide variety of sectors. Natural
dyes open up new creative perspectives, too, offering
an almost infinite variety of colours. Beginning
in 2014, the costume workshop at the Opéra Comique
has welcomed school parties and others interested
in natural dye techniques, and will soon be training
costume colleagues in other theatre companies.
Supported projects
In 2014, INVALUABLE mobilised 32 researchers in 10 different countries
to analyse economic tools with genuine potential to help preserve
biodiversity.
INDP beneficiaries have self‑evaluated the organisation’s projects,
giving them a rating of eight (out of ten) for consistency.
In Bolivia, Conservation International estimates that women artisans
working with the WALISUMA project contribute half of their family’s total
revenue, giving them an enhanced role in the household and society
as a whole.
In January 2014, over eighty different costumes were dyed naturally
for the Opéra Comique’s production of Lakmé, with a vast palette of hues
including apparently infinite shades of white, inspired by the colours
of sand.
Invaluable
Indonesia, Cambodia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador,
Belgium, Germany, France
INDP
Tamil Nadu, India
Conservation International
Bolivia
Opéra Comique
In India, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès supports
the INDP (Intercultural Network for Development
and Peace), an organisation whose work combines
environmental protection and the preservation of heritage
skills to help families achieve financial independence.
The INDP helps fruit and vegetable growers to learn
organic methods and develop domestic nurseries
for medicinal plants while at the same time highlighting
traditional knowledge. Families are encouraged to assert
their fundamental rights by re‑appropriating their land
through environmentally friendly agriculture, and to achieve
autonomy by selling their produce at regional markets.
The programme’s first beneficiaries are now passing
on their skills, training future generations of growers,
Paris, France
Conservation International: Edelia Lucero (left), president of Tres Palmas,
a not‑for‑profit association of women artisans in Bolivia © Juan Pablo Urioste
Opéra Comique: natural dye vats in the costume studio, Paris,
France © Opéra Comique
91
Getting involved:
Hermès staff
3
and H
by Valérie Crand
H 3 is an exciting programme offering staff at the house
of Hermès a chance to open a window onto projects they feel
passionate about, and to extend their commitment to a cause
that has touched their lives.
Heart – Head – Hand = H 3 .
With this striking appeal for solidarity,
the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès invited,
for the first time, Hermès staff around the world
Getting involved means recognising each individual as a whole,
in their private and working lives. Because when we come
to work we bring with us a part of what we are and the things
we believe in.
to propose new projects for support, in the area
of skills transmission.
The internal call for projects attracted
64 submissions, bringing a wide range
Enriched by this gesture of trust, the workspace is filled – more
than ever – with the rich contributions of each and every team
member, leading to more generous, inspired and inspirational
relationships with others.
of organisations with which Hermès staff
members are personally involved to the attention
of the Foundation. Nineteen projects were selected
for support over a two‑year period (2014‑2015).
These further extended the Foundation’s activities
helping young people discover new trades, providing
access to professional training and work skills,
and safeguarding biodiversity. Each H 3 initiative
is followed by the staff member who proposed it,
H 3 is an opportunity to involve Hermès staff in exceptional,
valuable projects in the public interest – programmes on a truly
human scale, breathing new impetus and energy into the lives
of all concerned. The supported projects are reinforced and
extended through numerous opportunities to share testimonies
of their work with the teams at the house of Hermès, reinforcing
the latter’s embodiment of the links between the Foundation
and the work of external, not‑for‑profit associations.
in his or her role as ‘ambassador’ for the project
to the Foundation and Hermès colleagues.
H3 serves as a subtle connecting thread, projecting a timeless
image of togetherness and solidarity across frontiers, in which
Hermès and each one of us plays a part.
valérie crand
Deputy director,
human resources,
Holding Textile Hermès
93
Getting involved:
Hermès staff support action
for training and skills
Among the projects proposed by Hermès staff
for the H3 programme were a number dedicated
to the preservation of important artisan skills
and industries through training for new generations.
The projects selected for support from the Fondation
d’entreprise Hermès all have a strong emphasis
on the transmission of traditional craft techniques.
In France’s rural Ardèche, the not‑for‑profit association
Liger organises training courses to help save the region’s
traditional broom thatch and stone‑tiled roofs.
Individuals and professionals interested in preserving this
unique heritage can learn broom thatching and stone
roofing techniques, and discover more about their
important role in the preservation of local biodiversity.
Rural architecture is central to the project steered
by not‑for‑profit association Canova, in Italy, working
to restore and raise awareness of traditional stone
buildings in the village of Canova, and the abandoned
village of Ghesc. International groups learn ancestral
building techniques at the site, working with artisans
from the local region. Canova also organises cultural
activities in situ, designed to raise public awareness
of vernacular architecture and the need to preserve it.
In Haïti, a campaign to re‑house local populations
following the earthquake of 12 January 2010 has adapted
traditional vernacular architecture to new specifications,
rendering it earthquake and storm resistant. Launched
by the not‑for‑profit association Entrepreneurs
du Monde, the HABITAT programme designs storm
and quake‑resistant buildings, initially using recycled
earthquake debris, and now incorporating local materials
as far as possible. The association organises training
sessions designed to teach the necessary building skills
and encourage artisans to come together in professional
associations to develop their businesses effectively.
In Italy, two organisations focus on artisan skills
as a springboard to new careers. In Como, the Cometa
cooperative enables adolescents with severely disrupted
school careers to take up workshop apprenticeships
with master artisans in carpentry, restoration, decoration,
home textiles or design. Designed to encourage
new vocations and revive a declining local sector,
the apprenticeships combine the transmission
of artisan skills and basic business training.Traditional
wood‑working skills are central to a project steered
by the e.s.t.i.a. cooperative at Milan’s Bollate
penitentiary. Inmates follow an intensive, demanding
course of joinery training before moving on to the prison
workshop, under the supervision of experienced artisans.
The workshop produces furniture, theatrical decor
and fine objects in wood by young designers, destined
for retail outlets. Artisan joinery skills offer inmates new
ways into work after prison.
In Burundi, spirulina cultivation is becoming
an important vector for the creation of new
jobs. Not‑for‑profit association Solibu partners
the development of a farm producing the algae
(whose properties have proved effective in the fight
against infant malnutrition), serving the nutritional
needs of thousands of children in the region.
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès supports training
for new growers and farm managers at the site, fostering
the development of this new agricultural business
and the creation of more jobs in future.
Cometa cooperative: restoration workshop, Como, Italy © Cometa
Sainte‑Eulalie, France
Support in 2014‑2015
Association Canova
Canova, Italy
e.s.t.i.a. cooperative: joinery and cabinet‑making workshop,
Milan‑Bollate penitentiary, Italy © e.s.t.i.a.
Entrepreneurs
du monde
Haïti
Cometa cooperative
e.s.t.i.a. cooperative
Milan, Italy
Khamir
Kachchh region, India
The Foundation also supports two organisations focusing
on agriculture as a vital sector for young people seeking
new ways into work. In France, the not‑for‑profit
association Cildéa has created the Jardin d’Astrée,
an organic market garden maintained by young people,
all of whom are long‑term unemployed. Participants
learn eco‑friendly horticultural techniques, helping
them to acquire new self‑confidence and discover new
career opportunities in a professional environment.
Association Liger
Como, Italy
In India, Khamir works to reinforce and promote
the Kachchh region’s multicultural craft tradition,
as a crucible for skills in weaving, embroidery, fabric
printing, knife‑making, dyeing, pottery, leatherwork,
wool‑working and more. In particular, the project
encourages young people to learn artisan skills rooted
in their local communities, as well as organising
exhibitions and training courses to raise awareness
of this vibrant heritage.
Association Cildéa
Boën‑sur‑Lignon, France
In summer 2014, a week‑long course at a heritage restoration site organised
by Liger attracted the maximum number of 18 trainees, from a wide range
of backgrounds. Public events at the site also drew numerous visitors, sparking
widespread interest.
In 2014, Canova acquired another house in the heart of the
abandoned village of Ghesc, as the focus of a new, more ambitious restoration
project. A group of young architects has committed to the project, organising on‑site courses for their respective universities,
and bringing fresh impetus to the association’s work.
In 2014, Entrepreneurs du Monde trained 17 bosses
(artisan entrepreneurs in Haïtian Creole). Another 16 are currently in training.
In 2014, apprentices working with the Cometa collective produced the complete
collection of wooden furniture for a small, 20‑room hotel in Novara.
Prison detainees working with e.s.t.i.a. built the monumental set
for a theatrical production at Bollate penitentiary, in 2014.
Work by artisans trained with Khamir in 2014 will go on show in an exhibition
of pottery entitled Ghadai, from January to March 2015. 65 artisans were
involved in the project, spotlighting the history
and rich heritage of the local pottery tradition.
Association Solibu
Bujumbura, Burundi
Cildéa acquired a mechanical hoe in 2014, for efficient, herbicide‑free weeding,
improved soil aeration and microbe life, and reduced watering.
Support from the Foundation in 2014 enabled the production of more than 120kg
of spirulina, for use by over 200 sick children and adults. Solibu has begun training
three women producers to join the team at the farm in Gatumba.
95
Getting involved:
Hermès staff help people
discover new trades and careers
Centre équestre
de la Haute Ehn
Obernai, France
Cara Mìa Theatre Co.
Dallas, United States
Hermès staff contributing to the H3 programme
put forward a variety of initiatives for support
by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès aimed at children
from underprivileged backgrounds and people with
special needs.The selected projects, which cover almost
every continent, reflect our commitment to help
individuals discover previously unimagined professions
and career opportunities.
In Europe, the Centre équestre de la Haute Ehn
in France hosts a day‑release training programme
for young people no longer in mainstream education.
Participants receive riding lessons and discover a variety
of equestrian trades, learning their associated skills
and techniques. The project promotes enhanced
self‑confidence, discipline and, for some, new career
opportunities in the equestrian sector.
Access to art activities helps adolescents to find new
channels of self‑expression and fulfilment, and may
also open the way to unexpected career opportunities.
In North America, Dallas’s Cara Mìa Theatre
Company has launched The School of YES! for young
people aged 7 to 21 who do not have the financial
resources to pay for art classes. Led by established artists,
participants take classes in play‑writing, acting, dance,
music, choral singing, the visual arts, photography
and film‑making. Each workshop culminates in a public
performance, encouraging the young protagonists
to say ‘Yes!’ to the future of their choice.
A similar initiative, in Australia, seeks to counter
the lack of musical education in the country’s state
school system. The Australian Children’s Music
Foundation provides instruments and music
classes to underprivileged children living far from
access to cultural resources such as these. Focusing
on individual self‑fulfilment and collective practice,
the scheme helps children to develop essential life skills
as the adults of tomorrow.
The Australian Children’s
Music Foundation
Australia
Off the coast of Africa, in Madagascar, Les Enfants
du soleil provides vulnerable children from difficult
backgrounds with a stable social framework and the life
skills they need to become responsible
members of society. Street children are welcomed
at four residential and drop‑in centres, and six villages
located across the country, offering advice and (if
necessary) a secure home base until they reach adulthood.
Children are encouraged to enter mainstream education
and engage with professional training.
Finally, in Asia, the Foundation supports two
organisations helping young people with special needs
find new ways into work. In Singapore, Project Dignity
offers training in catering skills for young people
with special needs, helping them to attain professional
autonomy and financial independence as springboards
to enhanced dignity and self‑esteem. Dignity Kitchen
is a school run by Project Dignity as a fully functioning
restaurant, open to the public and offering real‑time
professional training.The organisation works with young
participants to help them find sustainable jobs and a place
in society. In Seoul, Korea, a non‑governmental
organisation helps autistic people to function
independently in the community, drawing on their
particular aptitudes. The Autism Society of Korea
encourages young adults with autism to develop
and apply their skills in the workplace, and to find their
own place as active, fulfilled members of society.
Les Enfants du soleil
Madagascar
Autism Society of Korea, Seoul, Korea © ASK
Project Dignity
Singapore
Autism Society of Korea
Seoul, Korea
The number young people enrolled at the Centre équestre de la Haute Ehn
in September 2014 was double that of the previous year.
Cara Mía Theatre Co.: The School of Yes!, Dallas, United States
© Cara Mía Theatre Co.
60 students attended The School of YES! summer camp in 2014, including
11 older students acting as professional Youth Leaders. During the year,
The School of YES! organised a residency for 30 students from West Dallas
(a so‑called ‘cradle‑to‑prison’ area), providing access to art practice
as an alternative to gang culture and truancy and a pathway to new horizons.
The Australian Children’s Music Foundation was chosen to organise Sydney’s
programme for the Fête de la Musique (annual music festival) on 21 June
2014.
25 of the 27 adolescents supported by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
through the not‑for‑profit association Les Enfants du soleil graduated
successfully to their second year of professional training.
Project Dignity launched a muffin stall managed by four young people aged
22 to 26, preparing and selling their own, home‑baked produce.
The Autism Society of Korea organised a specially targeted illustration and
design course from September to December 2014.
Les Enfants du soleil, Madagascar © Capucine Réquillart
97
Know-how and transmission of skills
Promoting biodiversity
Getting involved:
Hermès staff support initiatives
for biodiversity
La Mine at CAPC
Bordeaux, France
Le Mas joyeux
Marseille, France
Several initiatives selected for support from the Fondation
d’entreprise Hermès as part of the H3 programme reflect
our commitment to preserve biodiversity.
One such is installed on the roof of the CAPC museum
of contemporary art in Bordeaux. La Mine is a group
of five beehives connected to an Internet platform.
The innovative hive produces not only beeswax,
propolis and honey, but also data on bee behaviour,
transmitted live online for analysis by beekeepers
and researchers.The installation helps refine sustainable
beekeeping practices, and contributes to biodiversity
at the heart of an extensive urban area.
Marseille’s 10th arrondissement is home to a garden
shared by children living apart from their parents
at Le Mas joyeux, and the residents of the neighbouring
old people’s home. Working with local artists,
Le Mas joyeux has used recycled materials to develop
the space and foster the creation of an eco‑friendly
vegetable garden worked by the children and their
senior neighbours. The project favours the transmission
of manual skills and expertise across the generations,
for the continuation and development of the shared
kitchen garden.
Near to the French city of Clermont‑Ferrand,
the Puy de Montaudou is an extinct volcano and the site
of an ancient Roman theatre, but this natural space was
being eroded by visitors and used for farming with little
regard for its importance.The not‑for‑profit association
études ET chantiers is leading a community project
to develop the site with a view to its gaining classification
as a sensitive natural area – an example of a social
experiment with sustainability at its core.
The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program is a city‑wide
initiative aimed at revitalising the inhabitants’ relationship
to their urban environment through the creation
of giant murals. Supported by the Foundation,
the ‘Restored Spaces’ project offers a particular focus
on ecological issues.The scheme draws on anecdotes
and stories related to plants, collected from local people
and depicted as murals, forging connections between
the citizens and their surroundings, and raising awareness
of the need to protect plants in the urban environment.
In Morocco, an entire region is reaping the benefits
of a scheme to protect the environment by collecting plastic
bags littering the landscape and recycling them into elegant
woven accessories.The Association du Docteur Fatiha
mobilises the population to collect the bags, after which
local women transform them from litter into accessories
using traditional weaving techniques. The scheme
promotes environmental protection, job creation,
access to professional and financial autonomy for women,
and the transmission of an ancestral artisan skill.
Études ET Chantiers
Clermont‑Ferrand, France
PHILADELPHIA MURAL
ARTS PROGRAM
Association du Docteur Fatiha: workshop in Morocco © Faiza Hajji
Philadelphia, United States
Association
du Docteur Fatiha
Berkane, Morocco
Captors at the CAPC hive in Bordeaux have collected 48,136 statistics
on bee behaviour for a database accessible to the public and researchers
alike.
Philadelphia Mural Arts Program: young people and artists working
on the mural Room for Growth, Philadelphia, USA
© City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Le Mas joyeux organised 32 creative and gardening events for its
community of children and their senior neighbours in 2014 – double
the number held in 2013. Visual artist France de Ranchin was invited
to work at the orchard in the Joyeux Jardin in 2014 – the first time an artist
has worked in situ.
2014 saw consultations between the various parties in the
Puy de Montaudou project steered by études ET chantiers, in preparation
for a launch in 2015.
550 young people and adults took part in the Mural Arts Program’s
‘Restored Spaces’ project in Philadelphia.
Support from the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès enabled the Association
du Docteur Fatiha to develop a new collection of 10 accessories made from
recycled plastic bags. The collection was launched in 2014.
La Mine: beehives at the CAPC museum of contemporary art
in Bordeaux, France © CAPC – Frédéric Duval
99
101
H 3 selection committee
Pierre-Alexandre Bapst
Sustainable development director,
Augustin de Champeaux
Group human resources director,
Valérie Crand
Deputy human resources director,
Holding Textile Hermès
Sophie Duverne
Human resources development director,
Nataly Ferrand
Networking projects director, human resources,
Jérôme Fougeras de Lavergnolle
Chef executive officer and chairman,
cristalleries Saint-Louis
Jérôme Frémont
Talent director, human resources,
Clément Le Duc
Project manager, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
HERVÉ RUDAUX
Board member, IECD
(European Institute for Cooperation and Development)
Catherine Tsekenis
Sophie Vergara
Internal communications director,
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès would like to thank
all the Hermès staff who proposed a project,
as well as the ambassadors
of the projects selected for the H3 programme.
© Philippe Dufour-Loriolle
103
The Fondation
d’entreprise
Hermès
104
105
106
Statutes, budget, headquarters
Board of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
Team and Contact
Statutes, headquarters, budget
Statutes
Board 2014
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès is subject to the terms of French law
nº87‑571 of 23 July 1987, relative to the development of corporate
patronage, modified by law nº90‑559 of 4 July 1990 and refined by decree
nº91‑1005 of 30 September 1991, modified by decree nº2002‑998
of 11 July 2002, modified by laws nº2002‑5 of 4 January 2002 and
nº2003‑709 of 1 August 2003, and fiscal ruling nº112 of 13 July 2004.
The Board of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès comprises representatives of its founding companies
(Hermès Sellier and Hermès International), representatives of the staff of those companies, and qualified
persons from the Foundation’s areas of activity.
The terms of the French law of 4 July 1990 and its decree of application
nº91‑1005 of 30 September 1991 stipulate a minimum duration
of five years for any corporate foundation, and a commitment on the part
of the founders to the sum to be disbursed over that period.
budget
April 2013 – April 2018: €40m (second term)
Headquarters
Patrick Albaladejo
Pascale Mussard
Deputy chief executive (strategy and image),
General artistic director, Hermès International;
president of the Foundation
Artistic director, ‘petit h’;
vice‑president of the Foundation
Henri‑Louis Bauer
Executive Board president, Émile Hermès SARL
Ménéhould de Bazelaire
Director (cultural heritage),
Valérie Burguière
Human resources development manager,
Hermès Femme;
staff representative, Hermès Femme
Edna Dumas
Journalist
Bernhardt Eichner
Managing director, Hermès Service Group;
deputy treasurer of the Foundation
Pierre Fleuriot
Actor
Mineaki Saito
Deputy chief executive, Hermès International
Chief executive officer, Crédit Suisse France
Martine Tridde‑Mazloum
Jérôme Fougeras de Lavergnolle
Chef executive officer and chairman,
cristalleries Saint‑Louis;
treasurer of the Foundation
Hubert Guerrand
Vice‑president, Émile Hermès SARL
24, faubourg Saint‑Honoré
75008 Paris
France
Jean‑Baptiste Puech
André Larquié
President or the Cercle des amis de Noureev,
the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Centre
chorégraphique de Lorraine and
Cité internationale des arts; honorary president,
Palais omnisports Paris‑Bercy
Head of corporate philanthropy,
BNP Paribas Group
Catherine TsEkEnis
Director of cultural and philanthropic projects,
Hermès International;
director of the Foundation
Laurence Tubiana
Director, Institute for Sustainable Development
and International Relations (IDDRI)
Cyrille Violot
General Counsel Hermès Asia;
staff representative for Hermès International
succeeded by
Marc Voinchet
Radio producer and broadcaster
David Dupont‑Noël
succeeded by
Christine Bouvry
from 14 October 2014
External auditors
105
107
Team, contact
Team
President
Catherine Tsekenis
Director
Claire Avignon
Executive assistant
Frédéric Hubin
Head of editorial image
Sacha Menasce
Public relations manager
Blandine Buxtorf‑d’Oria
Project manager
Clément Le Duc
Project manager
Clémence Miralles‑Fraysse
Project manager
Manon Renonciat‑Laurent
Project manager
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès thanks its two founding companies – Hermès Sellier and Hermès
International – the members of the Board, and all of its partners, artists, exhibition curators,
residency mentors, jury members for the Prix Émile Hermès and the Hermès Foundation Missulsang,
the members of its steering and selection committees, and the institutions, museums and theatres,
companies, not‑for‑profit associations and NGOs whose projects it supports in the community.
The Foundation would also like to thank the different departments (direction, artistic direction,
the Pôle Amont et Participations, legal, human resources, digital, media and publicity,
press relations, documentation, accounts...), métiers and subsidiaries (the French workshops
and international subsidiaries) of the group of Hermès, who are dedicated partners
in the Foundation’s activities around the world.
Together with:
Donia Lakhdar, production manager for the exhibitions
at La Grande Place, musée du cristal Saint‑Louis,
Hugues Jacquet, external project manager, Skills Academy
Philippe Boulet, press attaché
Brigitte Jais and Marylène Malbert, editors
Thierry Consigny et Helena Marquez (Saltimbanque)
and all of our suppliers and collaborators.
Lastly, the Foundation would like to thank the interns and work placement participants who have
contributed to our activities in 2014:
Marion Rolland, Miriam Procureur, Sophie Alöe, Clara Boucheny, Julie Arnaud, Ingrid Hazan
and Sandrine Philippart.
contact
24, faubourg Saint‑Honoré
75008 Paris, France
Tel. +33 (0)1 40 17 46 43
contact@fondationdentreprisehermes.org
www.fondationdentreprisehermes.org
Published
by the Fondation
d’entreprise Hermès
President
Publisher
Catherine Tsekenis
Editorial director
Frédéric Hubin
Assisted by
Miriam Procureur (intern)
Distribution
Sacha Menasce
Managing editor
Marylène Malbert
Guest contributors, on the theme ‘Creative breath’
Ann Veronica Janssens, Jean de Loisy, Patrick Jouin, Valérie Boisvert,
Valérie Crand
Curators and programme coordinators
at the Foundation’s art spaces:
Guillaume Désanges (La Verrière, Brussels),
Reiko Setsuda (Le Forum, Tokyo),
Emi Eu (Third Floor, Singapore),
Cory Jacobs (The Gallery at Hermès, New York),
Paul Cottin (TH13, Bern),
Jean de Loisy and Sandra Adam‑Couralet (La Grande Place,
musée du cristal Saint‑Louis)
Gaël Charbau, exhibiton curator, Condensation (Tokyo, Seoul)
Graphic design
Atelier Julia Bernard
Cover photograph
Susanna Fritscher, Souffle, 2014 (crystal, L: 76cm, diam.: 35cm)
Commissioned by the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès
for the exhibition Simple Shapes, produced at the cristalleries Saint‑Louis.
© Susanna Fritscher
Sub‑editor and proof reader (French version)
Danielle Marti
English translation
Louise Rogers Lalaurie
Sub‑editor and proof reader (English version)
Alison Culliford
French translation
Kelly Rivière
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès thanks everyone who has contributed
to the publication of this annual review of its activities.
Produced and printed March 2015
by Imprimerie Moutot
for the
24, faubourg Saint‑Honoré, 75008 Paris
www.fondationdentreprisehermes.org
Not for sale
All rights reserved © Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Paris 2015

activity report - Fondation d`entreprise Hermès

Transcription

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