Marie & Alexandre - Horizon

Composing a multidimensional landscape punctuated by physical tensions, highlighting the athletic properties of ceramics and calling for a bodily experience of the material, the creations deploy a gymnastic playing with the principles of balance, connection and extension.

A choreography formed by ceramic elements invites the viewer to approach the material, to observe its appearance and to confront oneself with its scale.

Made at the Alain Vagh tile factory in Draguignan in red earth from Salernes, the pieces explore the lightness and extraordinary resistance of the material.

The extruded and then shaped elements were fired in monumental kilns and enamelled in several layers during different firings, producing varied effects of tints and transparencies, punctuated by cast and pressed glass reflectors modeled in Biot, a city renowned for its glass craftsmanship.

Horizon by Marie & Alexandre initiates a dialogue with a history of the body in its relationship to sculpture, design and architecture.

—

Composant un paysage multidimensionnel rythmé de tensions physiques mettant en lumière les propriétés athlétiques de la céramique, les créations appellent à une expérience corporelle du matériau, jouant avec les principes d’équilibre, de liaison et d’extension. 

Une chorégraphie formée par les modules en céramiques invite à s’approcher de la matière, à observer son aspect et se confronter à son échelle.

Réalisés à la tuilerie Alain Vagh de Draguignan dans une terre rouge de Salernes, les pièces explorent la légèreté et la résistance extraordinaires du matériau. 

Les formes extrudées puis mis en forme ont été cuites dans des fours monumentaux et émaillées en plusieurs couches lors de différentes cuissons, produisant des effets variés de teintes et de transparences, ponctuées de diffuseurs en verre coulé réalisés a Biot par des artisans verriers.

Horizon par Marie & Alexandre entre en dialogue avec une histoire du corps et du sport dans ses rapports à la sculpture, au design et à l’architecture.

About Marie & Alexandre

Marie Cornil and Alexandre Willaume met in 2018 during their participation at Design parade 13 at the Villa Noailles in Hyères. Their backgrounds are indicative of complementarities, Marie studied visual arts at HEAD in Geneva before joining Ecal in Lausanne, while Alexandre completed his training in industrial design at ENSCI - Les Ateliers,  also benefiting from a university exchange in San Francisco at the California College of Art.

In 2018, Alexandre had already been working at the Bouroullec studio for nine years, when Marie joined the studio for two years.

Each developing their personal practices, that of painting and sculpture for Alexandre with WANC and textile and color work for Marie, they present together during the summer 2021, the Mobile series at the Villa Noailles which marks the beginning of their work around the red clay of Salerne. The particularity and the strength of the duo are based on the dialogue that Marie and Alexandre establish between themselves and craftsmen-artists. This relationship of curiosity between the two designers is the bearer of fertile collaborations. They apprehend each situation by discovering the materials, their techniques and the know-how of the craftsmen to design objects by an approach that is not hylomorphic. They implement the art du terrain, in which Making is central. Their itinerancy leads them to imagine objects as landscapes or living collections. Their current collaboration with Editors encourages them to think of objects with a wider distribution that complement the collectible approach of the very small series imagined for the gallery.

In March 2022, the Martell Foundation in Cognac inaugurates the Végétasia exhibition, result of a collaboration between the duo, the botanist Marc Jeanson and the Ateliers of the Foundation.

They begin a cycle of exhibitions at the Galerie Signé in September 2022 with a presentation of lights entitled Horizon, followed in January 2023 by Iris, an open research on the mirror object and its reflections.

In March of the same year, the Galerie Signé has presented a new version of the Végétasia exhibition.

Exhibition & Others :

Iris Galerie Signé, Paris, January 2023 

Horizon Galerie Signé, Paris, September 2022 

Internship Ex Ecal Becque, la tour de Paix, Switzerland 2022

Exposition Végétasia, l’intime des plantes, in collaboration with Marc Jeanson, Martell Foundation, Cognac 2022 

Galerie Signé, Paris 2022 

Collectible fair, Brussels 2022 

La Bocca della Verita, Curated by Margherita Ratti, Brussels 2022 

Mati Galerie, Geneva 2021 

Guru craft & design fair, Paris 2021 

Villa Noailles, « Manufacto » Hermès Fondation , Hyères France 2021

Villa Noailles, Design Parade 15, Hyères, France 2018, Finalists of the design festival