We Do Not Work Alone
the 27 June 2019
This year, the villa Noailles and We Do Not Work Alone, creator of useful objects designed by artists, are launching the first part of an annual co-production of objects revolving around the garden. These series are the result of a collaboration between artisans and artists. This first chapter consists of the production of monumental garden ceramics, painted by Matthieu Cossé at the Ravel d’Aubagne pottery.
“Cultivating one’s garden”
A proposition by We Do Not Work Alone. Artists presented: Hélène Bertin, Florian Bézu,
Elvire Bonduelle, Matthieu Cossé, Éric Croes, Alexandre & Florentine Lamarche-Ovize, Natsuko Uchino
For Design Parade, We Do Not Work Alone have chosen pots and flower boxes designed by seven artists. The motive behind this exhibition arises out of the observation that many artists surround themselves with plants in their studios. The plants’ daily needs are an act which can be interpreted as a metaphor for creation itself.
The corpus of works united in Toulon bear witness to the manner in which these artists have appropriated the manufacturing of these containers, destined to receive a natural element. These pieces reveal their relationship with history and architecture, their jubilation in displaying, and their intimate dimension in their relationship with the living.
Florian Bézu combines these two dimensions by constructing small interior worlds which cultivate the idea of a garden as a metaphor for the universe, whereas Éric Croes and Lamarche- Ovize materialise narratives through a sculptural profusion. For Matthieu Cossé it is the application of his graphical repertoire on Provencal pots and urns with traditional shapes. Natsuko Uchino’s and Hélène Bertin’s pots develop upon a nation of intimacy. For Natsuko Uchino, pottery is the link between agriculture, landscape, environment, and conviviality, whereas for Hélène Bertin it is a receptacle for the papyrus from her garden, from which she likes to offer cuttings.
Finally, the planters from the series “Thai Pipes” by Elvire Bonduelle are created from pipes, barely modified spoils from a treasure hunt in the recesses of Bangkok where she lives. She has reduced her intervention to a minimum in order to reproduce in these domestic objects, an aspect of the streets, building sites, the town.