Hermès invites artists to combine art with craftsmanship

An artistic residency program, started in 2010 and now arrived in 2018 at its third cycle. The Hermès Foundation selects some artists to be mentored by key figures of contemporary art to discover the artisan qualities practiced in their workshops in France. The annual program, which rewards for 2018 Sébastien Goujou, Emmanuel Régent and Vassilis Salpistis, grants the artists maximum creativity to produce works using excellent materials (silk, leather, silver, crystal). At the end of their residence artists made two works: one is owned by the artist, the other is given to the Hermès Foundation.

The first four-year residency cycle produced Condensation, which was held at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2013 and then went to the Tokyo and Seoul Forums (Atelier Hermès). The second three-year cycle was celebrated with the recent exhibition “Les mains sans sommeil” (Hands without sleep) at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. The mentors of this third three-year cycle are Michel Blazy, Isabelle Cornaro and Françoise Pétrovich. The artists chosen for the first year of the third cycle are Sébastien Gouju (1978) who uses sculpture and drawing to manipulate the environment, Emmanuel Régent, an eclectic artist who paints and sculpts, making visible “invisible things” (Rudy Ricciotti) , Vassilis Salpistis, which combines painting and video practices with painting.