It appears that your cart is currently empty!
To celebrate the three years of the Sessùn Alma adventure, we invited six ceramists to explore the Creative Flowering, one of our core values, as part of an exclusive carte blanche.
With this project, we wanted to tell new stories within the ceramic landscape, to support research in the studio, to make people feel the experimental value of a piece... and to take the time to create, quite simply.
With pencils, enamels, plates or brushes, these six artists have imagined sleek and elegant lighting, bas relief wall lamps, sculpted murals and other abstract forms that illustrate an intimate part of studio work: that of experimentation, of formal and chromatic research.
The exhibition can be seen at Sessùn Alma until October 15, 2022.
« Magda » light, Léa Bigot
Léa Bigot was born in the Reunion Island where she continues to draw inspiration for her artistic work. Sensitive to the forms given to matter by the forces of nature, each of the journeys she undertakes is a moving experience. She approaches sculpture as a medium to create forms for the home, made to evolve in the space of everyday life.
For Sessùn's carte blanche, Léa imagined the Magda lamp like a tower that grows towards the light.
Made of hand-modeled and limewashed clay, its immaculate whiteness echoes the brightness of Marseille's creeks while its composite nature - three modules that fit together organically - evokes an articulated structure that soars upwards.
A tribute to the sun and to all living beings that seek to get closer to it.
« SUMU » wall lamps, Emmanuelle Roule
Emmanuelle Roule is a designer and ceramist. She started working with clay in 2012 and since 2019, she has launched an applied research project called Living Heritage (Patrimoine Vivant) centred on clay and its possibilities, by questioning our methods of production and construction of spaces, furniture and objects in an economic and ecological context that has been disrupted and is undergoing changes. She develops associations with clay / biopolymers like natural beeswax and vegetable fibers. A project that connects the fields of design, architecture, crafts and the living.
For Sessùn's carte blanche, Emmanuelle created a series of five wall lamps, halfway between design and art, with forms inspired by architectural structures tinged with anthropomorphism.
This series named SUMU refers to others, to diversity, to cohabitation and to an idea, a way of living. All of the pieces are made of white stoneware, raw or glazed, fired at low or high temperatures, with shades of beige and matte, textured finishes, enhanced by the light source that passes through them
« Les Cailloux » vases, Lisa Allegra
Passionate about clay and its many aspects, Lisa Allegra has chosen to set up her studio in Barcelona where she experiments with notions of balance and contrast in her unique pieces - lighting, furniture, objects that always flirt with the limits of gravity in poetic evocations.
For Sessùn Alma's carte blanche, she imagined three large decorated vases with rounded shapes - Le Calcaire, Le Basalte and Le Jasper (Limestone, Basalt and Jasper) - and covered their surface with small enameled "pebbles", like those you pick up during a stroll.
Scattered on the smooth clay surface, these pebbles create drawings, patterns and stories.
« Joseph » large dish, Tom and Folks
Passionate about the culinary arts, "eating well" and the value of sharing that comes with it, Suzie Le Pennec founded the Tom and Folks studio in 2019 with the wish to create objects that are utilitarian, unifying and deeply rooted in everyday life.
For Sessùn's carte blanche, Suzie imagined an oversized salad bowl that literally portrays her idea of a "dish to share", to enjoy with family or friends.
"I also wanted to get out of my comfort zone, which is turning my pieces on the potter's wheel, and use the technique of columbine modeling. It's a slower way to create: by using this technique, I wanted to take the time, to slow down our busy lives. Like when we are with family or friends. The idea for the spoons came later because I was looking for a way to accompany this dish. And this utensil was an obvious choice. To twist their shape, I was inspired by ethnic wooden spoons.
Pet bottle, Mano Mani
Born into a family of artist-craftsmen, Julie Boucherat - head of the MANO MANI label - draws her inspiration from traditional skills, art, as well as legends and popular traditions.
For Sessun Alma's carte blanche, she imagined an endearing oversized organic bottle, the kind you would want to live with as if it were a pet.
"My Pet Bottle is the result of a reflection on domestic ceramics, or how to create an affectionate piece with which one would want to live, to share the same living environment. The idea of the pet ceramic, echoing the family pet, was born. It is very organic; one can almost visualize it breathing. Its shell, between the scales of a pangolin rolled into a ball and the black plumage punctuated with white dots of an African guinea fowl, appears like a second skin. This piece is intended to stimulate the imagination.
« Family » composition, Marion Graux
From her childhood years, Marion Graux has kept a taste for festive tables, the thrill of preparations, the joy of choosing among earthenware the plates in which her family and her friends would happily share a dinner or a lunch. These rituals led her to ceramics. In the village where she spent her summer vacations, in the Drôme Provençale, she trained alongside country potters. A rural apprenticeship in which rigor and humility prevail. Emotion too.
For the Sessùn carte blanche, Marion worked on a composition of five pieces in bas-relief, like a symbolic family portrait. "The idea was to question how we juxtapose each other while maintaining a possible balance. So I portrayed and symbolized through shapes and colors my own representation of each of us: Constantine, our three children and me".
