"Glass Session" by ESAD Reims at Villa Noailles

1 July - 2 October '11

For the 6th edition of Design Parade, Villa Noailles has invited the Ecole Supérieure d’Art et de Design in Reims (Reims School of Art and Design) to exhibit a selection of works, the result of two workshops which took place in 2011, with blown glass as the theme.

The first, directed by David Dubois, took place at the Centre International des Arts Verriers (CIAV) in Meisenthal in the Vosges department. The students were introduced to molten glass techniques and the CIAV’s collection of glass moulds, as a starting point to this workshop: ‘Out of the Mould.’ During the workshop Reims ESAD students were invited to give free reign to their imaginations and create object-imprints which bear the marks of the moulds, the materials, and the hand movements which produced them. A series of experiments which were fruitful as the project ‘Falaise’(Cliff) by Ferréol Babin went on to be manufactured by CIAV. Proof of the theoretical, as well as practical commitment of such a diligent approach.

The second workshop, directed by Renaud Thiry and organised by Patricia Ribault, took place in Murano, in partnership with SALVIATI, with ‘the luminous object’ as theme. Students whose proposals were selected, went to Venice to create their prototypes, where they were advised by the designer and glass decorator Norberto Moretti, as well as by Dario Stellon, production manager at SALVIATI. The whole of the workshop was filmed and a short documentary will be presented during the exhibition.

In both cases, many tests were carried out using traditional, as well as innovative techniques, one of the main challenges was making tradition evolve. This is apparent first of all in the relationship between the student’s aim and the ‘maestro’s’ interpretation of it, but also on a technical level: the formal or functional audacity of each designer questions the production method of each project and often involves putting vocational gestures to the test, or even inventing new ones. That is where the interest in the designer-artisan relationship lies.

www.villanoailles-hyeres.com
www.esad-reims.fr
www.ciav-meisenthal.fr
www.salviati.com