Note to readers: the following interview (and yesterday's) gives you the opportunity to take part in Xavier Brisoux's Competition – read the instructions and the interview carefully. Good luck!
"Home for a large family. Home for a family living in 1934: air, light, work, sports, hygiene, comfort, economical". This is how Robert Mallet-Stevens described Villa Cavrois in his book Une Demeure (1934). Paul Cavrois, a wealthy industrialist with a business based in Roubaix, wanted a traditional house, but the architect convinced him to opt for a modernist alternative after a trip to The Netherlands where Cavrois and Mallet-Stevens saw the work of Willem Marinus Dudok and admired the Hilversum Town Hall.
The result was Villa Cavrois, an architectural masterpiece characterized by sleek lines, a structure almost reminiscent of an ocean liner.
Located in Croix, France, and built between 1930 and 1932, the house presented a division into functions rather than mere rooms, with a mirror pool and garden outside, and, inside, a low-key entrance hall, a main salon-hall, the adult family rooms, the dining room and the kitchen.
The parents and children's bedrooms were located upstairs and a further floor featured a playroom and a roof terrace. Rooms were like theatrical spaces, successions of scenes, where real life was staged.
Restored between 2009 and 2015 after lying in ruins, Villa Cavrois is now open to visitors and, every now and then, hosts temporary exhibitions like the one that opened yesterday - Xavier Brisoux's "Du Point à la Ligne" (literally, "From Point to Line", but there's a pun there as "point" in French also means "stitch", so you could read it also as "From Stitch to Line").
At times it is possible to create correspondences between fashion designs and architecture, spotting links between shapes and silhouettes. But, in the case of Xavier Brisoux and Robert Mallet-Stevens, the similarity is in the modus operandi: the French fashion designer and artist has developed throughout the years not just a distinctive style, but a very unique technique and concept.
His Maille Haute-Sculpture is rigorously based on craftsmanship and a meticulous attention to details that has led him to create armor-like pieces, interior design sculptures and architectural elements. For Mallet-Stevens small things mattered and his passion for craftsmanship and emphasis on details is clear in all his buildings, but especially in Villa Cavrois.
This building could be considered as a sort of "handmade" house in which Mallet-Stevens thought of everything, down to the minimum detail: from the concealed lighting and clocks to the built-in speakers in every room; from the fixed and moveable furniture to the exquisite materials such as Siennese and Swedish marble, or woods and veneers with an exotic patina.
The red brick and concrete construction was dressed in yellow bricks, to imitate Hilversum Town Hall and as a tribute to Willem Dudok, but no bricks were cut in the making of the building. The latter was indeed clad with bricks that had the same thickness but came in twenty-six different lengths.
"Du Point à la Ligne" (until 5th March 2023) is therefore a double celebration of the highest-standards of design; it reflects the personality and passions of two visionary minds intent on creating through finest details and materials something innovative and original that can truly stand the test of time.
A while back you did a photoshoot at Villa Cavrois, how do you feel at being back there now for an exhibition?
Xavier Brisoux: I discovered the Villa when it had just been bought by the French government. It was in a very bad state after being abandoned and squatted for many years. The public was allowed in for private visits on special occasions. I visited it two or three times and I had very mixed feeling about it: I felt so happy to be in such an amazing place, but heart-broken to witness the state it was in. While visiting I said to myself: "One day I will do a photoshoot here!" It took several years but it did happen. I was very lucky to be allowed to take pictures of one of my ready-to-wear collections there. It was amazing to be allowed in with my devoted team: Mathieu Drouet, my everlasting supporter of a photographer, Agathe Vuachet who is in charge of all my communication, my beautiful models and all. It was one of the most memorable days of our lives, and we did feel at home! So being back here for an exhibition is amazing. To be honest, I have no words. It is such a dream come true. I feel humbled that Villa Cavrois is showing my work. It makes so much sense for me as Paul Cavrois was a textile manufacturer. And I have read somewhere that he started his business selling knitting yarn! It feels like history is coming full circle. It is one of my favorite places in the entire world. I am so happy it exists and has been saved from destruction. We are very lucky to still have it! I am blessed and honored to exhibit my Maille Haute-Sculpture there.
In which room will you be exhibiting your pieces and can you tell us more about them?
Xavier Brisoux: I'm showing seven pieces in the children's playroom. It is on the second floor of the Villa. It actually felt very natural while discussing it with the team of the Villa as the room has the most space. I also like the fact that the children of the family used to have theater plays organized for the family there. The pieces on display are the outfits shown in 2020 at Villa Noailles, during the 35th Festival International de Mode et de Photographie of Hyères where I was a finalist. These pieces are an achievement for me. It’s when my concept of Maille Haute-Sculpture really came together. These are the pieces I am most proud of. Showing them in my city - Croix is next to Lille where I'm based - feels very natural, but it makes a lot of sense to present them in another Mallet-Stevens building. I am very interested in architecture, and I love Robert Mallet-Stevens. I have been lucky to visit the workshop of the Martel Brothers in Paris. I am obsessed with his aesthetics. So again, it comes full circle for me to have shown my work in Villa Noailles and being welcomed in Villa Cavrois. Well, I guess now to complete the circle I will have to do a photoshoot at Villa Noailles!
Staff at the villa were given a token of your work, a knitted brooch, for the duration of the exhibition: its shape is architectural, but also calls to mind the principles of biomimicry, what inspired it?
Xavier Brisoux: The staff at the villa has indeed been given a knitted piece of Maille Haute-Sculpture. It was important for me that people could identify the exhibition in this space. It is a temporary exhibition and I felt the brooch would help the visitors and the staff to be involved in that capsule of time. It is also a way for the staff to show how my technique works, how it is done, it is like a mini sample of my pieces they can show visitors. I was very happy to see that the staff took ownership of the brooch in different ways: some of them wore it in a classical way on the chest; others used a ribbon to use it as a bracelet and there is even one person who is wearing it on his trousers pocket. The brooch also sums up the concept behind the exhibition. It is called "Du point à la Ligne", which you could translate into "From stitches to lines". The idea is to echo the statement of Mallet-Stevens not to cut a single brick to create the Villa. My statement is to never cut the yarn to make my garments. The brooch is made in the same way: the yarn is never cut!
Knitted pieces or textile pieces are multi-layered and they are great metaphors for history, cognitive structures and memories: do you ever feel that your pieces can be like vehicles for you, for your memories or your personal stories?
Xavier Brisoux: All the pieces I knit are stories I tell. For each piece, I am imagining a story, a character, a creature coming together with a certain yarn, in a certain colour with different shapes and volumes. I have multiple inspirations some very primitive and some very futuristic. And I often think that my pieces are some sort of fossils from the future. For our 2023 flagship image, Mathieu Drouet imagined my pieces buried in the sand, so he perfectly illustrated this idea. The moment was magical: we went to the beach placed the knits on the sand, the wind started blowing and the sand started covering the pieces. We were so lucky that day!
Do you ever take inspiration for the stories inspiring your collections from books and, in case, who is your favourite author?
Xavier Brisoux: I love reading Neil Gaiman and one of my favorite books by him is Anansi Boys. If I may quote "stories are web, interconnected, strand to strand and you follow each story to the centre because the centre is the end. Each person is a strand of the story". I sometimes feel like a spider knitting a beautiful cobweb. When I look at my pieces, I see sea creatures, I see faces, I see aliens. I also love music. It is essential for me when I work. I can spend a whole day listening to the same song if it has the good rhythm for my knitting. It can be very classical, very pop or very techno.
The last time we spoke you had just created the totems that this January you showcased at Maison&Objet and that you also displayed at the beginning of February at Maison d'Exception: can you tell us more about these events, what kinds of reactions did you get from visitors?
Xavier Brisoux: Last time we spoke I had just developed a series of Totems. Well in actual fact, they are more scepters to the characters I create with my designs, but I realized they could stand alone and be architectural elements. So that is how I presented them in the fair Révélations last June. It got a great response, and I was awarded the prize of the Ateliers d'Art de France and was offered a booth at Maison&Objet this January. I developed another Totem for the exhibition, but mainly I developed mural pieces. As we have discussed last time, I see my work becoming a new alphabet, so I am experimenting with different formats. What is important to understand is that the technique I have developed allows me to do anything. The Maison d'Exceptions experience is very different from Maison&Objet in the sense that Haute Couture fashion houses come to find crafts to enhance their collections. It was a very good experience as great fashion houses have shown interest in my work. I cannot name any of them at the moment, but something will be happening soon! So, stay tuned. I have also met a costume designer for the cinema, so again let's keep our fingers crossed that you will see my designs on your screens in the future.
Would you like to take further one day this discourse with interior design as well, maybe applying some of your interventions to a piece of furniture?
Xavier Brisoux: I have met great artisans during the latest fairs I attended. Collaborations are on the way. I am working with a light designer to develop pieces together. And there is a project with someone creating the most beautiful chairs, but I don't want to say too much as I have to find time to materialize this project.
Do you have any updates about your long-term project with comic book artists?
Xavier Brisoux: I have fallen behind on this project as my interior design projects have received a great response and have taken most of my time. But I will tell you this: I will create a comic book soon! I have had the chance to speak with a great writer lately, and I feel very encouraged in my proposal! I have another artist on board to create an illustration based on my work, so let's keep our fingers crossed!
Where would you like to take your exhibitions?
Xavier Brisoux: When I was presenting my work in Maison&Objet, I had the opportunity to meet with Japanese architects and journalists. They were very excited about my work. I was lucky enough to visit Japan a few years ago, it is a country I feel very close to. Japan understands craft and long-time work. One of my pieces is called Umarekawari. I imagined a goddess of reincarnation and the word in Japanese instantly clicked for me. The yarn used for this piece is made of a cotton that is recycled from denim. Also, I was lucky to visit the Kyoto Costume Institute (KCI). I will never forget how I got there: I was lost looking for it and asked for someone on the street if he could tell me how to get to the museum. The guy took me all the way there! That sums up Japan for me: no matter what, we will get you there! So, I guess after visiting that beautiful museum, I would hope, that, somehow, someday my work will be shown there. I would feel so humbled as part of my work is inspired by ancestral Japanese armors. I have seen what the KCI does with their SELECTION project and, let me tell you, I would love to be featured there!
Image credits for this post
Images 10 to 17 in this post copyright and by Mathieu Drouet
Images 1 to 9 copyright and courtesy Xavier Brisoux
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