Savoir Faire Savoir
Historical archives and contemporary creations respond to each other in a dynamic of modernity and weave links between the motif and the object, heritage and the contemporary, art and utility.
The Galerie des Galeries presents Savoir Faire Savoir, a creative journey to the rediscovery of the La Maîtrise workshop, an internal furniture publishing house at Galeries Lafayette. Historical archives and contemporary creations meet in a dynamic of modernity and weave links between the pattern and the object, the heritage and the contemporary, the art and the utility.
Founded in 1922 under the direction of Maurice Dufrêne, La Maîtrise workshops’ create an extensive collection of modern furniture for the department store from which the first creations of Charlotte Perriand, Serge Mouille and the Adnet brothers were born. “Practical works, of irreproachable taste, responding to the favor of the public, as well as to the everyday necessities of existence” are daily produced, and illustrate the creative spirit of French artists. These works highlight a national know-how, that of French manufactures, whose shields adorn still today the pillars of the dome of the department store Haussmann.
With vegetal pattern at its theme, the first part of the Savoir Faire Savoir project revisits the creative process of La Maîtrise through a program of artistic commissions made to artists, creators and contemporary designers in collaboration with artisans and businesses of the living heritage.
WE DO NOT WORK ALONE publishes a collection of everyday objects created by artists Florentine and Alexandre Lamarche-Ovize, Benoît Maire, Pascale Marthine Tayou and Marion Verboom. Offered for sale, these creations that demonstrate exceptional craftsmanship evoke our daily lives, our times and our lifestyles, while perpetuating the notion of “art of living”.
From the vegetal motifs of La Maitrise, the students of the Duperré School imagine a repertoire of contemporary motifs and its possible applications in objects, decorations and architectural elements, characteristics of the department store.
Objects produced by French artisans and Living Heritage Companies : Faïencerie Georges ; Société d’Impression sur Etoffes du Grand Lemps (S.I.E.G.L.) ; Fermob; Gilles Tavernier - ferronnier d’art ; HM Bois et design ; Andésite ; Yann Debuiche.
We Do Not Work Alone
Since 2015, WE DO NOT WORK ALONE designs everyday objects in collaboration with contemporary artists. More than thirty objects have been created by the publishing house, implementing industrial or artisanal savoir-faire to produce projects of confirmed or emerging artists.
For the exhibition, WE DO NOT WORK ALONE received "carte blanche" to invite artists to work such as La Maîtrise and thus constitute a collection of usual objects edited in limited editions and made by French heritage companies.
The choice was: Alexandre & Florentine Lamarche-Ovize, Benoit Maire, Pascale Marthine Tayou and Marion Verboom. Then we found the companies whose savoirfaire corresponded as well to the exhibition's intention and the project of the artist. Savoir Faire Savoir exhibits the result of this dialogue fed for more than one year with the artists and the companies (Faïencerie Georges from Nevers, Gilles Tavernier, Ferronier d’art, SIEGL, textile printing company, the manufacturer of garden furniture Fermob, and the stone carver Andesite).