Learning from Hermes

PERFECTION MIGHT BE what artisans seek in their craftsmanship, while uniqueness is what artists pursue in their creations. 

At the world’s top workshops run by Hermes, artisans and artists have worked together to stimulate each other’s craftsmanship and creativity. Since 2010 their collaborative projects have played a link between the expertise of artisans and the motivation and inspiration of young artists. 

Hermes has invited 16 young artists over the last four years to its unique residency programme to explore special adventures in art and craftsmanship. Four artists, who can speak French, are selected each year to work with artisans. 

A touring exhibition of their final works started at Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2013, then moved to Japan before arriving at Atelier Hermes in Seoul’s Maison Hermes Dosan Park. It runs there until November 30. 

While spending two to three weeks at historic Hermes workshops in France, artists observed artisans’ work processes and learned their skills and techniques by participating in their daily work. In the end, they came up with their own works reflecting what they observed and learned at the workshops. 

“The residency programme gives young artists a chance to work on-site at historic Hermes workshops, drawing on the expertise of skilled artisans to create new works expressing their shared experience, visions, backgrounds and techniques,” Gael Charbau, curator of the exhibition, says in its catalogue. 

Inspired by pagodas found in Korean Buddhist temples, Oh You-kyeong constructed a silver-plated metal structure titled “Les Pagodes de la Lune” at the gold and silverware workshop Puiforcat, founded in 1820 in Paris.

“I planned this for two months and studied closely whether it was feasible to create the structure,” Oh says. “The artisans helped me a lot to bring it to reality with their techniques and craftsmanship.” 

Oh, with much interest in “mountains, infinite multiplication and the circle of life”, presents glossy silver-coated pagodas that create crystal-clear reflections from lighting in the dark room at Atelier Hermes.

At the leather workshop Sayat, Elisabeth Clark was fascinated by the artisans’ circular hand movements when they stitched saddles. She also attentively observed curved handles of Hermes leather bags.

She related this to an acrobat’s movement and made a circle 4.07 metres in diameter, sheathed in white leather. The white circle hangs at the entrance of Atelier Hermes.

Olivier Severe explored the origin of crystals and focused on the fact that 70 per cent of crystalware is made of sand. At the Cristalleries de Saint-Louis, the artist investigated materials, their nature, chemistry and physical limitations. His end results are creative crystals that look like stones, pebbles, cobbles and rocks. He employed different processing techniques by artisans at the workshop to shape his artwork.

Other artists also used crystal as a key material. Oliver Beer, who’s concerned about sound and music, developed his sound project using glass and crystal. He created a crystal window with a “trumpet” bulging out of it to help the audience listen to the outside world. 

Beer also shows an anatomical look at the human auditory sense. He has recreated a replica of an ear cast in gold and put it in absolute silence inside the crystal case.