Marie Barthès

Leatherworker

Poetic sculptures in delicate leather

Marie studied with French designer Serge Mouille
Her work falls between design, art and sculpture
She uses leather and other materials to create unique works

Marie Barthès studied synthetic materials at ENSAAMA Olivier de Serres in Paris, before becoming a sculptor for cinema, advertising, theatre and interior design. In 2009, she launched herself as an independent artisan and joined Les Ateliers d'Art de France. She worked with every type of material until she found leather – or rather, as she describes it, leather found her. She discovered it when she worked on a project for Guerlain years ago and has used it ever since. Her background has provided with her with traditional tools and expertise, which she has adapted to create sculptures that have a distinctive character and a delicacy that arises out of the details she crafts into the leather.

Interview

How has your work evolved?: The use of mirrors was an aesthetic choice as it adds a luxurious element to contrasting materials such as leather. It also gives people a chance to appreciate either the functional or artistic side of the piece. The mirror represents an intellectual dimension.
Do you crave variety in your work?: It’s a need of mine. The guiding principle in my work is the same – volume in space – and I try to use a diversity of materials to the very maximum. At one point I was working with rubber because of its black, matt texture, before I moved on to leather.
With your mirrors, what world are you depicting?: A poetic universe. What interests me immensely is the presence and absence found in an object. The multiplication of forms, rhythms, fullness and emptiness, the order and disorder that can be found in each aspect of life.
Do you take into account where your work will end up?: Yes, and I’m starting to know my clientele better, so I will be able to recognise their preferences depending on where they come from. But what I always rely on when I make a work without any knowledge of where it will end up, is the idea of creating a universe or a fictional place.

Marie Barthès is a master artisan: she began her career in 1986 and she started teaching in 2009