Salades (Lettuces)

Sébastien Gouju, Salades, Jury’s special merit, 2016

Working on the question of the bound and the hierarchy between “noble arts” and “minor arts”, Sébastien Gouju restyles the traditional greeneries of the Aubusson tapestries in a humorous way.

Coming from the notion of décor, he took inspiration in what decorates our plates, to make us sink into a pack of salad. He delivers a composition of salads, a mixed salad, in its most calibrated version, the most industrial ever, with a very contrasted and graphic treatment.

Steeped in the constraints of the textile medium, Sébastien Gouju wished to restrain his cartoon to 20 colors and play with the technical writing of the tapestry to transcribe the almost organic gush of his composition in a mastered weaving project. The jury wanted to underline the quality of his project by attributing him the special mention of 2016.