Today, an artisan designer who combines light, material and literary inspiration: Marion Mezenge, metal turner and lighting manufacturer. This art craftswoman specializing in turning, trained at the Boulle school in Paris, developed a passion for light and metal work. Co-founder of a collaborative workshop, her creations are inspired by her readings and experiences while combining tradition and innovation.
Winner of the 2024 Young Creation Métiers d’Art Prize, Marion Mezenge is exhibiting her works for the first time at the International Cultural Heritage Fair which ends this Sunday, October 27, in Paris at the Carrousel du Louvre. We met him in his workshop in Pantin, in the Paris suburbs.
Creation accompanies me and sometimes, it is less present.
Marion Mezenge, artisan designer, metal turner and manufacturer of lighting for the eponymous brand.
“Since the age of fifteen, I have been studying in the arts and crafts sector, but I think that it [la création] accompanies me. She is a faithful friend, she is there, nearby and there are periods when we have to take a little break between us and there are periods when it is fusion. »
Marion Mezenge was born in the Paris suburbs, she grew up in a family environment conducive to imagination. Her passion for crafts began at a young age, through contact with a handyman father who introduced her to various materials in their family workshop. These experiences and discoveries of materials naturally led her to join the Boulle school in Paris, where she discovered art filming.
“I am in love with my job. I love filming, it has become enormously industrialized over time. But I find that all the mechanisms that are hidden in your engines, that are hidden in everyday objects, that’s what I tried to highlight in the Astérie collection. »
“I learned this profession and it also conditions my way of creating. It is my framework, which means that, for me, it is supportive in the sense that this mechanical technique allows me to combine with other techniques which are more imbued with gesture or which will be random or completely empirical, and I will make these techniques interact with each other. »
After five years of intense learning, she obtained her crafts diploma in the filming section. Diploma in hand, Marion Mezenge carries out internships in different workshopsthus learning the inner workings of custom furniture and lighting. At the same time, she co-founded the Edward Tisson workshop, a space dedicated to experimentation and creation.
“My workshop is called Edward Tisson. It’s an association that I co-founded. We set it up because we’ve known each other since school and we wanted to have a place to experiment. We had in common the fact of working with metal. Metalworking, as is often the case with wood and glass, requires heavy investments. However, we wanted to have a place for experimentation. We had the same need for machines and location. We got together and shared all of this. We started by buying the forge. Little by little, I got my turn, then I bought my second lathe, then the milling machine and so on. This is how the workshop was set up. This also allows us to somehow pool know-how, because we have different profiles, therefore different know-how in jewelry, chasing and turning and also in design, we are on different scales, but we have a common need. We often need tools that are similar. The goal is really pooling. »
“And then at the time, there was the rise of manufacturing laboratories, except that bringing a forge into these spaces is complicated. For us, it’s a real need, we need to work the flame, to have an important structure and so that’s how we decided to be together in a fixed place, because we can’t move often. For example, my lathe is one ton and my milling machine is two tons. When I move them, it’s always a bit of a mission. »
Marion Mezenge is sensitive to light and metal. She doesn’t just create functional pieces, she uses the reflection of light to provoke emotions.
“When we do art turning at school, we learn how to turn wood, plastic, etc. But I have more sensitivity towards metal. At school, we learn the trade on so-called style pieces, so on Louis XII candlesticks, lamps, hot water bottles, etc. I learned this about candle holders, but I would like to look at the object of the candle holder for its light reflection. It used to be something we needed to enlighten us. However, now, it is no longer a primary need. »
“Can’t we harness the narrative power of the candlestick? Working on the reflection of light to tell a story with textures? And for once, metal lends itself enormously to this with polished metal, hammering. I don’t know why the metal, but I know that it is partly linked for me really to the reflection of light and the metal which play very well together. There are other mediums that are very interesting, but metal is mine for the moment. »
Passionate about stories of exploration, Marion Mezenge nourishes her imagination with her readings. Stories that resonate deeply with his creative process.
“At the beginning, I think I had a very academic process. My first collection was my candlestick collection. It was after drawing them that I realized that it was linked to all my reading. I read a lot of books and I am passionate about the stories of explorers, primatologists, and finally all those people who have left a traditional circuit to take an interest in something else, in inhospitable lands. Now I realize that this is truly my foundation. Reading feeds my imagination. Words create images for me and little by little, when I draw pieces, it connects despite myself. It’s quite a very pleasant feeling. But now I know that’s how it works. I’m still reading. I always have a book and often now I struggle to find works that are still in print on exploration stories. »
The choice of materials is important for Marion Mezenge who turned to aluminum, a material that many consider ordinary. This dialogue between material and emotion gives birth to unparalleled creations.
“I say that I am in the process of building a cold library. I have recently been passionate about the ice, the ice floes, the explorations that have taken place on these distant lands. And, I focused a lot on working with aluminum because this material, when it is polished, worked, I found that it was a subject that was interesting because already, I found that it is a material that is categorized as poor and who is not in the arts and crafts sector at all or very little. It is also more common. You’re used to having it on your cans! It’s interesting to try to find a visual language with this material that allows me to dissociate it from current codes and completely ennoble it. It turned out that the technique for the Léonie wall light immediately plunges us into this atmosphere, a bit ice-like, it’s the first thing people say to me: “It’s cold, like frost”. I don’t have a specific choice of metal that I will work with. But often, everything fits together. It’s one small step at a time on every topic. »
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