It is well known that art in all its forms is an inexhaustible source of inspiration. So, we always keep our eyes open and soak up everything within our reach to make our ideas germinate.
It seems that there is a certain form of transitivity in inspirations.
Every year, for 3 years now, we have put our spearhead material, leather, at the service of artists in residence in our workshop. For each of them, it was a new material that pushed them to think in another way about their works.
It is the Le Lait Contemporary Art Center, a member of the Graulhet le cuir association, which allows these artists to be immersed for several weeks in order to discover all the know-how around leather.
So, we have already welcomed Victor Bois and Lucie Laflorentie.
Victor bois is a designer: « Inspired by the universe and the radical nature of the work of the Bandit Manchot company, the objective was to go to the essential in shaping the leather, to “do the most with the less” by proposing a minimalist way of designing and creating these pieces. » This is how A MINIMA was born, a nomadic ensemble dedicated to reading and daydreaming.
Lucie Laflorentie is a visual artist. His thinking was built from leather dust and the desire to transform it into a new resource. By adapting the cement tile technique, thanks to the bridge press that we made available to her, Lucie has created a unique material, full of poetry.
She also compiled a repertoire of forms characteristic of tavern architecture and produced works from this repertoire by testing the plasticity and resistance of leather.
At the end of these residencies, the works are exhibited at the Maison des Métiers du Cuir de Graulhet.
We bet that leather will inspire other creative people because thanks to them, we happily step out of our comfort zone!
Bandit Manchot and art.