The themes of heritage and transmission take centre stage this year to mark the 30th anniversary of the Grand-Hornu. The Hors Pistes project, created by the two French designers Marie Douel and Amandine David, explores these two concepts by bringing together craftspeople, designers, photographers and graphic designers from different cultures.
Through workshops, Hors Pistes facilitates creative encounters, enabling young designers to discover foreign craft techniques and allowing craftspeople to showcase their skills by diversifying their fields of application.
These workshops encourage the transmission of skills across trades, whilst also raising questions about the legacy of craft techniques and their future, by proposing a reimagining of traditional craftsmanship.
For its inaugural edition, Hors Pistes took place in Ouagadougou from 1 September to 15 October 2013. Forty-five days of collaboration saw European designers and Burkinabe artisans create objects that blended their respective skills. During those 45 days, life in the workshops was punctuated by joy as the pieces took shape and emerged from the clay, by moments of anxiety when the technique failed to keep pace with the deadlines, and by a touch of magic when the material itself seemed to suggest the design. The result lies at the crossroads of the two cultures: a fusion, an unlikely combination.
The exhibition at Le Grand-Hornu will present the process of exchange as well as the objects, photographs and screen prints resulting from this first Hors Pistes experience.
Artistic directors: Marie Douel & Amandine David
Hors Pistes 2013 team: Ilboudo Ablacé (leatherworker), Dimitri Bähler (designer), Emile Barret (photographer), Karim Bassegoda (graphic designer), Antoinette Boukougou (cloth weaver), Valentine Dubois (designer), Raphaël Faure (communications director/artist), Emmanuel Ilboudo (aluminium caster), Kader Kaboré (consultant designer), Christophe Machet (designer), Maurice Nagalo (designer), Alphonse Ouedraogo (bronze smith), Evelyne Ouedraogo (plastic bag weaver), Fabrice Schneider (photographer), Studio Monsieur (designers), Sarah Viguer (designer) and Ousman Yerbanga (painter).
