The Hollow of Hell offers two new exhibitions at the May factory. Gregory Granados presents Industrial Resonances.
The light that enters through the workshop windows of the May factory illuminates small sculptures on the ground floor. Are they miniature totems? Or are they characters with skirts, hairstyles, wings? On closer inspection, the components of these creatures are none other than knife blades, carabiners, shaving brushes… So many pieces that make up the identity of the Thiers basin.
It is the artist Grégory Granados who is the author of this new exhibition at the contemporary art center of Creux de l’Enfer, Résonances industrielles. A designer from Saint-Étienne, he has been in residence on the Thiers basin since January, as part of a partnership between the art center, the City of Saint-Étienne and the Drac Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. His initial project was to cast a bell, but after coming into contact with the local economic fabric, he changed his mind. He preferred to collect industrial and artisanal pieces, and reassemble them differently, to create these sculptures.
In residence in companies
The companies Wichard, Fontenille-Pataud, Muzard, Perceval and Roddier-Roddier opened their doors to him and donated multiple pieces to allow him to create. “The companies that participated are all lovers of the object, in a principle of competence to the bitter end. But these sculptures no longer have a function”, described the director of the art center, Sophie Auger Grappin, during a visit preceding the opening, Thursday, June 27.
They make a knife from fragments of the Ariane 5 rocket for an engineer from the European Space Agency
They have lost their primary function, but the artist Grégory Granados has given them a new one.
They are witness objects: they bear witness to a past history but also to a present history. They carry the history of their manufacture. And for me, that is important.
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From luthier to designer
Because before becoming a designer, Grégory Granados, 32, was a craftsman. First a luthier, then a cabinetmaker and seat joiner. He seems all the more sensitive to these pieces forged or polished by the Thiers know-how. “We can see that you have touched the material because you respect it, you magnify it”, estimated the cutler Dominique Chambriard.
Today, Grégory Granados teaches object design at the Saint-Étienne School of Art and Design, where he graduated in 2018. The following year, he received the grand prize at Design Parade Hyères.
Soundtrack
Other skills, such as the practice of music and dance, were also used in his exhibition. “In the same way that I worked on objects, I collected sounds: machines in operation, atmospheres, to transform them into something that could become musical,” he described. This soundtrack accompanies the video projection.
After the May factory, “Witnesses” by Gregory Granados will be exhibited in the gardens of the sub-prefecture for the European Heritage Days, then at La Serre, in Saint-Étienne. As for the artist, he flew to Cambodia, for a new project.
Artist Camille Grosperrin in residence at the Cannes Fayet company in Orléat
This exhibition can be seen at the May factory, avenue Joseph-Claussat in Thiers, until September 22, from Wednesday to Sunday, from 2 to 6 p.m. Free admission. Guided tours on the first Saturday of the month at 3 p.m., €2, free for under-18s and members.
Alice Chevrier
