In parallel with the sporting competition, the cultural program for the Paris Olympic Games is also being prepared. A monumental wool tapestry, designed by the Franco-Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi, is being woven at this very moment in two of the oldest factories in the country. The opportunity to highlight a centuries-old craft. In Paris, the central tapestry is made, it is the largest piece of the composition.
Hidden behind a rain of wires that seem to fall from the ceiling, Alexiane’s ten fingers work as smoothly as a harp player. She is not a musician, but a licewoman.
“ I make contemporary tapestry. What I have in my hand is called a brooch, it’s a wooden stick surrounded by wool. And that’s what I come to weave my pattern in front of me. I have warp, so threads which are mounted on a loom and I pass my wooden stick between the warp threads to create my pattern. Vulgarly, it’s like Tetris. It’s not linear, it’s really shapes that rest on top of each other », explains Alexiane.
In this workshop, there are two girls working on this work since October 2021, and they only have a few centimeters left to finish it. A job that requires time and concentration because, an additional difficulty, the patterns are assembled in reverse.
Large format tapestries
“ I see the front thanks to mirrors which are on the other side of the warp threads. And behind me is the large-scale loom pattern. I’m always looking behind me, weaving and looking through the threads in my mirror, to see the result, specifies the lice. The central motif of the Olympic Games tapestry represents a man and a woman, facing each other, and in the middle, the Olympic flame. The arch of the Eiffel Tower is above, we have a sort of horizon with the Parisian monuments and the world map below. It is mostly very blue, with the colors of the Olympic Games. »
A contemporary work, far from castle tapestries. This is the opportunity for Alexiane, at the age of 28, to dust off this largely unknown craft.
“ It is a project which allows us to bring up to date these know-how which we forget a little. I like the relationship with this material, with wool, and especially that we manage to transcribe painting effects with wool. It’s still pretty crazy, it makes the grain and the color effects even more interesting. Our tapestries are three meters by four meters, so it’s interesting to do something big, and not to do very small things. », notes Alexiane.
The triptych will be nine meters wide and three meters high. It remains to be seen in which Games meeting places these 60 kg of wool will be exhibited.
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