There, we discover a wild bestiary: a bear playing rugby, a boxing goat or a sprinter dolphin. Elsewhere, plant architectures and mineral obliterations appear. Further, it is a fencer, a handball player, a rider, who appear in profile, as if carried away towards an ultimate surpassing of oneself. Finally, attractive graphics evoke comic book or manga characters splitting the air at lightning speed.
These sets are those imagined by six student-artists of the Beaux-Arts de Paris to adorn sixty trophy vases designed by the Manufacture de Sèvres for the future Olympic medallists of Paris 2024. Unique pieces that combine centuries-old expertise with the originality of a new generation of artists. “ Art and sport is about mind, concentration, performance, endurance, imagination… and the result Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, said on 24 April, brandishing one of these precious trophies.
A delicate operation
But before we get there, we must return to the workshops of the Manufacture de Sèvres, where took place on March 29, in the presence of the Minister of Culture, the President of the National furniture, the Director General of Sèvres and the Director of the Beaux-Arts de Paris, a somewhat special ceremony: the lighting of one of the three open wood ovens specially for cooking the sixty prototypes designed by the students. It is a delicate operation, lasting thirty hours. “ It takes a long timecomments Domitille Siergé, a graduate of the Beaux-Arts de Paris, one of the winning artists of the project. And then, for about three weeks, the oven is not opened because cooking continues with a gradual decrease in temperature ".
Yet, we feel no impatience in the young artist’s words. On the contrary: it would rather be a certain pride in a process used for several centuries by several generations of ceramists. “ It is a very beautiful adventure, which will certainly mark the year 2024, confirms Michel Roué, head of the decoration department at the Manufacture de Sèvres. In Sèvres, thanks to this process, one can make tests until obtaining a coherent result from which one can start. For some artists, it was a real evolutionary work ".
A great adventure
Wednesday, April 24, a certain effervescence reigns in the workshops of the Manufacture de Sèvres. In a few minutes, craftsmen and technicians will carry out the so-called ' knockout ” (bricks that obstructed it are removed) and the result is revealed (trophy vases will appear in the open). “ It is a moment full of emotion, because it reveals the inherent risk of creation, especially with this material difficult to control without the precious know-how of the craftsmen of Sèvres ” says Alexia Fabre, Director of the Beaux-Arts de Paris.
« The first results are rather satisfactory, rejoices Romain Poiré, craftsman at the kiln workshop in Sèvres. Decors well placed on a white porcelain, this is precisely what we seek with this type of cooking Like the vases made by Sacha Floch Poliakoff, artist and student at the Beaux-Arts in Paris. “ To recall the Games of Antiquity, she said, I was inspired by the Greek vases with their silhouettes in motion, which look in the same direction, as if carried away on a wave That is the whole meaning of “ this exemplary partnership between our two cultural institutions, whose excellence serves the values of Olympism ", says René-Jacques Mayer, Executive Director of Sèvres. According to the Minister of Culture, " creation is, more than ever, at the heart of the Paris Games ".
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