Behind the scenes of
Beyond our Horizons: from Tokyo to Paris
with Lesage, Lesage Intérieurs, Atelier Montex, and Studio MTX

Following its success in Tokyo, the exhibition Beyond our Horizons: from Tokyo to Paris returns to la Galerie du 19M.

Take a look behind the scenes at the creation of the exhibition’s works, in the heart of le19M’s workshops specialising in embroidery: Lesage, Lesage Intérieurs, Atelier Montex, and Studio MTX.

Among the collaborations between artists, artisans, and Maisons d’art, the exhibition presents the work of designer Akiko Ishigaki, originally from the Yaeyama archipelago in Japan. Since the 1980s, she has cultivated the plants needed for her creations, notably the basho, whose fibres are painstakingly extracted, prepared, and spun by hand before being woven using ancestral techniques that she adapts to the contemporary world.

For Beyond our Horizons: from Tokyo to Paris, Lesage, a century-old embroidery and weaving house, is collaborating with weaver Akiko Ishigaki on two noren—traditional Japanese curtains often found in doorways—one in tweed made from cotton, wool, abaca, metallic threads, and other fancy yarns, the other in basho fibres and silk.

Renowned for his striking, vibrantly coloured compositions, artist Julian Farade showcases his artistic world at the intersection of figuration and abstraction.

For Beyond our Horizons: from Tokyo to Paris, the artist collaborated with Maison Lesage to create animals emblematic of the Japanese bestiary. Lesage created patchwork fabrics such as jersey and tweed, whose golden threads evoke kintsugi, the Japanese technique that uses gold powder to repair objects.

For la Galerie du 19M, Design Tochi has created a mist screen made of harigane, a stainless steel fabric woven on Jacquard looms using very fine metal threads, in partnership with Studio MTX, specialists in architectural embroidery.

Representing the eighteenth generation of his lineage, Zengoro Eiraku (born in 1972) aspires to revive the use of the doburo, a terracotta brazier, in tea ceremonies—a tradition that disappeared after the Meiji era (1868–1912)—whilst also exploring contemporary modes of expression.

The result of his collaboration with Atelier Montex, the installation on display at la Galerie du 19M is a perfect illustration of this. The branches and leaves painted on the teacups come to life in the space through embroidery, whilst a bowl crafted using the doburo technique, with a deep black surface, evokes the night sky.

For la Galerie du 19M, Yukio Fujita helped design shoji, those sliding panels traditionally made of paper stretched over a wooden frame, here replaced by organza embroidered by Lesage Intérieurs and Atelier Montex.

For la Galerie du 19M, konomad created five new artistic pieces in collaboration with Atelier Montex and three other art houses: Maison Michel, Goossens and Lemarié. konomad then assembled the various parts using his own techniques, notably with a hook that allows him to knot the strands one by one into the mesh of a lace bonnet.