European Craft Days (JEMA)
On the occasion of the European Craft Days, Villa Noailles welcomes Marie Gastini, recipient of the Villa Swagatam × Æquō grant, Design Parade 2025
Le Boutis, the Provençal Embroidery Craft
with MARIE GASTINI, recipient of the Villa Swagatam × Æquō grant, Design Parade 2025
Saturday 11 April from 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Sunday 12 April from 2:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Adult workshop for ages 16 and over
Price: €15
This 3-hour workshop offers an introduction to the artisanal technique of Boutis, a traditional Provençal embroidery revisited in an accessible format. Starting from a simple pattern inspired by the flora of the south of France — lemon tree, olive tree, orange tree — participants discover the essential steps in creating an embroidered piece, from drawing to textile work. After an introduction to the technique and a few stitch trials, each participant develops their own pattern, transfers it onto fabric, and creates a raised embroidered piece using the quilting principle characteristic of Boutis. The workshop ends with the mounting of the finished piece onto a wooden frame, giving shape to a 30 × 30 cm textile artwork. Designed in connection with my installation presented at Design Parade 2025, this workshop offers the opportunity to both discover a local textile craft and explore the links between textile art and craftsmanship.
Marie Gastini lives and works in Paris. A graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in 2019, her artistic practice draws from the decorative arts through the repurposing of domestic objects, uses and customs that reflect the work of the hand. Her research focuses on the presence of the living within inert objects or spaces, through an observation of what remains after life has passed through. She has developed in particular an installation practice rooted in an imaginary of domestic spaces, through the summoning and reinterpretation of textile objects and decorative pieces. Textile crafts — knitting, crochet, embroidery and finishing techniques — occupy a central place in her work. A permanent resident of the Ateliers du Wonder, she was, in 2025, a finalist in the architecture competition at Villa Noailles’ Design Parade, where she received a grant for a residency in India with the Aequo gallery and Villa Swagatam.
