Frederic Saulou
Interview
I was born in Angers (FR), and I am from Rennes, in Brittany, France.
I think that’s what happened when I started to study at the Academy of Beaux Arts. After a bachelor’s in an Applied art design school, I discovered a more artistic and personal approach to design when I entered the Academy of Beaux Arts. After that, everything has changed, my vision and my artistic approach, my references and the créatif processes.
Also, I received two books before my studies, one by Serge Mouille and one by Jean Prouvé. I was fascinated by the duality between functional design and the artistic approach of these designers, yet industrial.
Yes. At the beginning, when I was 10, I wanted to become an estate agent because I was fascinated by houses and volumes. After that, I simply understood that architects were the creators of these houses. And naturally, architecture led me to interior design, and interior design led me to furniture design, and finally, product design led me to contemporary art design.
Probably, my look sharp for the beautiful things, for the fabulous details, for volumes, for the process of constructions and industrials process, my sensibility with materials, natural materials. I saw a great playground naturally there. Younger, I passed my time observing my environment and building different things that I had seen.
“Domestiquer” (Domesticate) is a project that aims to reintegrate heritage with the author’s design process, fuelled by encounters of creative and economic thought with partners and collaborators.
I explore and combine the industrial and artisanal units of production in a given region in order to design a constructive, social, and meaningful project. This gives rise to new ways of applying mineral matter and stone craftsmanship, which are constantly evolving. Through my work, I study the adaptability of hybrid objects to the domestic world, fuelled by transmitting thoughts and knowledge.
Architectural references are part of this archaeological work, which creates a mise en abîme of the heritage of symbols of construction in symbiosis with the codes of modern works.
The ensemble therefore creates a strong identity at the crossroads of modern objects and historical roots. The result is a mastered, simple, and raw aesthetic, controlled but also naturally freed. The creations are made from natural resources, and some are sometimes transformed by man to form a balance. The inspiration for the creations comes from architectural codes being used as a creative lever.
My work must be timeless, like a lasting, solid construction. Through simple but constructed volumes, the immersion of material in space is pure, as if the object had always been there, as if it were part of the walls.
I prefer a visual, obvious, and sometimes primitive style, but I find it to be reassuring and striking. The round and decorative forms respond to the straight and pure lines by alluding to the periods of ornamentation and the streamlining of space of the 90s. The tools and lines can be interpreted as the new, modern, but elementary, architectural forms, just like monolithic and geometric sculptures. The sparing use of resources is clearly evident in a monumental dimension, reflecting the idea of the scale of space where habitat and environment mix.
A typical day begins with a coffee and a book on my sofa with the sun, when he’s present. He is good at waking up fully. Sometimes I stay at the studio at home to deal with important things, sometimes I go to the workshop. Generally, I stay at the studio in the morning to be free from the workshop, the rest of the day to develop my projects, meet craftsman, or do different things related to project management or the creative process.
All of this accompanied by music and good vibes.
The technical particularities lie in the work of brute materials associated with digital techniques and traditional stone cutting. Also, this kind of stone is difficult to work with because it is sometimes sensitive to impact tools.
The means of artisanal and industrial production inexorably influence form and are the technical and aesthetic extension of the shaping of the object, a reflection of a mastered and successful piece of work that must last and adapt over time. From there, all the pieces strive towards a fair, mastered, simple, and striking design, giving pride of place to raw materials and tools. In this way, I combine the tools of production and create parallels between the arts and the digital dimension. The result is the equation of techniques and constraints to strive for a volume created at two speeds, but simultaneously, allowing for the projection of volumes to be interpreted in two ways.
Limestone is also a sedimentary rock that is formed by accumulation, usually at the bottom of the sea, but sometimes in lake environments, from the shells and skeletons of micro-algae and marine animals. The rocks that we use, such as Magny stone, Chamesson stone, and Burgundy stone, are made up of calcite, silica, clay, and other minerals and organic matter that influence their colors and offer beautiful shades of white, beige, and sparkle. Furthermore, their singular aesthetic, formed of natural sediments and veining, gives a glimpse of the history of the stone and its character. Porous and sensitive, some rocks also have high density and stability and are suitable materials for contouring.
The unique and warm grain of limestone makes it generous, soft, and temperamental. The hands of the stonecutter bring it to life, and the digital dimension invites itself into the history of its shaping, an alliance between tradition and modernity.
The use of traditional materials is no coincidence. In the past, and still today, these materials have proved their worth and are firmly present in history. However, as time goes by and materials and know-how multiply, these minerals, sometimes considered as “poor” become dated and I try to evoke the origin of their use. As they were the basis of modern home designs dating from a certain era, I like to modestly pay homage to that era by reinventing them and giving them a new function. By redesigning their original function, they become objects and are included in domestic spaces.
These materials are really difficult to work with because they have particular specificities :
Slate is both a brittle and very strong material. It is amazing to be able to chisel lace in a sheet of slate, like shaping a monolithic form in a massive block. This sedimentary rock comes from clay that has undergone metamorphism. It belongs to the schist family that comes from the mineralogical transformation of clays into schists. Difficult to extract in large sizes, the material is carefully chosen and extracted to measure to find the best elements needed to create large-scale artistic objects. Each stone is chosen for its shape, colour, and quality.
Slate is very dense compared to other rocks and is distinguished by its fissility because its grains are very fine and homogenous. In its deep and soft black, there is a palette of subtle colours. Its appearance is glossy because of the presence of small white mica that sometimes gives it a marble-like appearance and allows for different finishes. As for the naturally raw cleaved layers, they express themselves freely with their aesthetic defects and their uncertain graphic aspects. So unique in their nature, they allow for the experimentation of their surfaces.
Slate is a unique rock that our workshops shape with elegance, agility, and expertise.
Tell your story and sensibility, have trust in yourself, and never give up.
I don’t know exactly … Minimalism, Brutalism, and Primitive? 🙂
Andrea Branzi, Jean Prouvé, Nacho Carbonell …
Marcin Rusak, Valentin Loellmann, and Den Holm for their amazing sculptures.
Giuseppe Penone, Isamu Noguchi, Jeanne Malivel.
Primitive.
“Tell your story and sensibility, have trust in yourself, and never give up.”
The Questions
(The Proust Questionnaire is a set of questions answered by the French writer Marcel Proust.
Other historical figures who have answered confession albums are Oscar Wilde,
Karl Marx, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Cézanne…)
To be free.
To be not free.
Too exacting.
Hypocrisy.
My grandmother.
To work stone as I do. I have never imagined that.
Distracted.
Aestheticism.
Honesty.
Sincerity.
Hybrid.
Fly.
–
To have persevered in my way.
A bird.
Near the sea and in front of the mountain.
My van.
Not received Love.
Look around me.
Epicurean.
Their sensitivity.
Paulo Coelho, Junichiro Tanizaki.
Nobody.
The resistants.
Everybody.
Kerguelen.
To have only 24h in a day.
No regrets, I take it as it is.
Simply but certainly.
«Tout vient à point à qui sait attendre », Clément Marot.
“My work must be timeless, like a lasting, solid construction. Through simple but constructed volumes, the immersion of material in space is pure, as if the object had always been there.”
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