PARIS.- In 2024, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès is continuing its Artists’ Residencies programme under the artistic direction of Emmanuelle Luciani, who succeeds Gaël Charbau.

This spring, two artists are invited to Hermès workshops to develop a project each: Jenna Kaës at the Maroquinerie de la Tardoire (Charente) and Mounir Ayache at the Holding Textile Hermès (Rhône).

Committed to support contemporary creation, the Foundation has been developing an Artist’s residency programme within Hermès’ workshops since 2010. Working alongside craftspeople who introduce them to their gestures and guide them in the application of their know-how of excellence, guest artists create original works in exceptional materials such as silk, silver, leather and crystal.

In 2024, the Foundation hands the reins of this programme to Emmanuelle Luciani, who chooses the artists she mentors during their residencies. Her approach, based on imagination and passing-on, combines form with know-how. Challenging the workshops to create futuristic pieces, Emmanuelle Luciani gives pride of place to crossing techniques and methods. The aesthetic she champions borrows as much from the medieval period as from cyberpunk, and plays on the tensions between the past and a phantasmagorical future.

In February, two residencies began under her watchful eye: those of Jenna Kaës at the Maroquinerie de la Tardoire in Montbron, and Mounir Ayache at the Holding Textile Hermès workshops in Lyon. The aim of these residencies is to pique the artists’ creativity by enabling them to master new techniques and confront their artistic practice with unknown know-how. The result of a fruitful dialogue between the arts and artisanal trades, the works are produced in duplicate: the first remains the property of the artist, while the second is kept by the Foundation to be presented to the public with the help of cultural institutions located in the manufacturing region.