L'usage des jours

During the period from Septem­ber 21, 2009, until Septem­ber 20, 2010, the French designer Guil­laume Bardet drew one object a day. As an exten­sion of this «artistic and human perform­ance», from fall 2010 he saw to the creation of each object. He did so in collab­or­a­tion with four­teen ceram­ists from the Dieule­fit region (Rhône-Alpes, south­east France), where he had settled in 2009 in order to flee the Parisian hullaba­loo.

It took a good meas­ure of determ­in­a­tion, passion, enthu­si­asm and energy for Guil­laume Bardet to become the hub of an alli­ance built up of indi­vidu­als, compan­ies, insti­tu­tions and collectiv­it­ies, all of whom agreed to join this human and creat­ive adven­ture with him for an over two-year period. It also deman­ded a great deal of nerve and talent for the designer to bare himself, reveal­ing not only his basic concerns and strokes of imagin­a­tion, but also his weak spots, his doubts and his trial-and-error approach. And all this in order to uncom­prom­isingly give their full due to his formal and aesthetic solu­tions.
Guil­laume Bardet entrus­ted the sceno­graphy for this itin­er­ant exhib­i­tion to his friend, the designer Vincent Dupont-Rougier, insist­ing nonethe­less on a precon­cep­tion whereby time passes very slowly (a one-year period) and very rapidly (that of a single day). And this by resort­ing to elements in the service of simpli­city, struc­tur­ing and narra­tion, so as to bring to mind both linear­ity and profu­sion, famil­ies and uses, moods and fancies.
The exhib­i­tion also brings to light vari­ous phases of inspir­a­tion, the artist’s manner of work­ing and his search for solu­tions. In the words of one of the ceram­ists involved, Guil­laume Bardet found out how to «tell a story» and «seek out the lines» in each of the forms he had designed and observed taking shape in the artis­ans’ hands. This outstand­ing personal chal­lenge entailed a nigh-to-monacal and intro­spect­ive approach in 2009; it was followed by a more collegial phase in 2010, climax­ing in the produc­tion of 365 brand new ceramic works. These have since been presen­ted as the theme of a mono­graphic exhib­i­tion of a new kind, shown at several museums and exhib­i­tion venues part­ner­ing this initi­at­ive. The mudac repres­ents the last lap on the exhib­i­tion’s itin­er­ary, which included Sèvres («City of Ceram­ics») in France (near Paris), Le Grand Hornu Images in Belgium, the Château des Adhé­mar (Contem­por­ary Art Center) in Montéli­mar (France),
and the Maison de la Céramique du Pays de Dieule­fit in 2012.
The publish­ing house Bern­ard Chauveau has published a cata­logue that, beyond accom­pa­ny­ing this exhib­i­tion, will serve as a tangible record thereof far beyond this present­a­tion. The public­a­tion boasts 400 color illus­tra­tions, and is bilin­gual (French and English). Read­ers are treated to 365 ceramic pieces, as photo­graphed by Pierre-Olivier Deschamps, and to comple­ment­ary essays contrib­uted by Lorette Nobé­court, Cath­er­ine Geel and Claude Eveno (ISBN 9782363060136, 55 €).
Thanks to this ambi­tious project, Guil­laume Bardet and his ceram­ist colleagues were named the winners (Prix Dialogues) of the year 2011 Betten­court Prize for the Intel­li­gence of the Hand.