Matisse Vrignaud & Lundja Medjoub
ESAD Talm Le Mans, IRCAM, Université Paris Eiffel, Ina GRM, École de design Nantes Atlantique,École Supérieure d’Art et de Design Saint Étienne
IG @linguafranca.studio
Matisse Vrignaud and Lundja Medjoub founded their studio following overlapping studies between ESAD Talm Le Mans and IRCAM, complemented by a background in sound arts at INA GRM for one, and in design at ESAD Saint-Étienne for the other. From this dual cultural background emerges a practice that intertwines art, design, and sound to create a singular narrative: that of a world in slow transformation, a time in metamorphosis, where sound becomes a symbolic language.
Les Horloges à Feu
A contemporary reinterpretation of medieval measuring instruments, these candle clocks suggest a subjective and fluctuating perception of time. Here, combustion becomes movement, rhythm, and sound, revealing a moment that burns away and transforms.
This collection of acoustic objects uses flame as the principle for triggering sound. Here, fire does not measure time precisely; rather, it makes it perceptible, tangible, and unstable. These are clocks in which accuracy matters less than the experience: not instruments of measurement, but objects of contemplation, surprise, and meditation. Time is not counted here, it is lived.
Made from surplus parts from a brass foundry, each clock embodies a principle of timekeeping. The Gong traps marbles and chains in the wax of two vertical candles: as they burn down, the candles release them into a resonant bowl and against a
thin cymbal, producing sounds with unpredictable timing. The Metronome is a pendulum formed by two candles fixed backto- back: the imbalance in combustion between the two flames sets the system in oscillation, and with each beat, a ball strikes a receptacle placed at the center. Finally, the Hourglass consists of a horizontal candle that heats a brass plate until the water placed on its surface begins to simmer and then evaporate.
WITH THE SUPPORT OF MARCO ROY, ARTISAN BRONZIER
