Wonder Lab in Beijing
HEART & crafts is the instigator and organiser of the WONDER LAB exhibition.
Bringing together 15 of France's most talented craftspeople, the exhibition offers a fresh look at contemporary creation. From goldsmithing to ceramics, from featherwork to working with tortoiseshell, glass, leather, straw, paper or textiles, the excellence and diversity of French arts and crafts have been showcased for the first time to an international audience.
Resolutely contemporary, the exhibition is the result of an encounter between the work and careers of 15 French designers - masters of art or craftsmen distinguished for their degree of excellence. It takes visitors on an unprecedented aesthetic experience, bringing together expertise, materials, life paths, and men and women who have chosen to continue, reinvent and pass on their skills, combining vocation and tradition with innovation.
The artists taking part in this human adventure are the chippers Christian Bonnet, the featherworker Nelly Saunier, the embosser and printer Laurent Nogues, the heraldic engraver Gérard Desquand, the glassmaker Emmanuel Barrois, the goldsmith Roland Daraspe, the rotogravure artist Fanny Boucher, fan maker Sylvain Le Guen, straw marquetry craftsman Lison de Caunes, coppersmith Nathanaël le Berre, wallpaper designer François-Xavier Richard, folding artist Pietro Seminelli, parasol maker Michel Heurtault, leatherworker Serge Amoruso and ceramist Jean Girel.
As an echo and extension of the exhibition, the public can take part in meetings with the masters of art, lectures by experts and workshops for younger visitors.
A travelling exhibition, Japan was its first destination, with the Tokyo National Museum in 2017. Its next destination is China, where it will be presented in 2019 before continuing its journey in Asia and around the world.
