In the summer of 2023, the Fondation Hermès will publish the book "Savoir & Faire Tsuchi" from Iwanami Shoten as part of its "Skills Academy," which seeks to rethink, pass on, and extend artisanal techniques and handcrafts involving natural materials.

The book will feature translations of selected essays and interviews from the French edition of "Savoir & Faire La terre" (2016), co-edited by Act Sud and the Foundation, as well as eight original texts, interviews, and portfolios by Japanese authors. To celebrate the publication of this book, Ginza Maison Hermes Forum will hold a group exhibition "Emailles and the Body" featuring related ceramic works.

The exhibition will examine the relationship between clay and the body, focusing on emaille (enamel), a material used in ceramics that is transformed into a glassy substance by fire and air. In his essay "Les Emaux" (1947, Savoie), the ceramicist Jean Girel (b. 1947, Savoie) observes the properties of emaille as follows.


Each of the seven artists' works uses the colors and effects of the emaille to create a dialogue with the body. Girel's landscapes, in which emaille plays with time, and Françoise Petrovitch (b. 1964, Paris) animals, whose smooth, glossy surfaces evoke emotions. Masaomi Yasunaga's (b. 1982, Osaka) sculptures remind us that ashes and bones are part of our bodies, and Sylvie Auvrey's (b. 1974, Paris) fetishistic brooms choreograph our daily rituals.

The filmic effect of the emailles also evokes the protective skin and hiding places of our bodies. Yusuke Y. Offhause (b. 1985, Tokyo) builds small architectural structures based solely on his memories, while Agathe Naito (b. 1986, Morges) uses her work to live with the ephemeral nature of ceramics or to hide within their performative vessels. As if reduced to earth and water, the white strata of Machiko Ogawa (born in 1946 in Hokkaido) will envelop us with an abundance of energy that manifests itself in cracks and chips.