When Frédéric Chambre from the Pierre Bergé et associés Gallery in Brussels called me to commission me for this show, I almost dropped my telephone from the building’s 7th floor where I was at that time. The meeting in Brussels, then the spontaneous order for a collection I should imagine “all in marble”…
Marble is to me the souvenir of Carrara, its quarries and sculpture workshops that I visited when I was a little girl…but it also became another discovery I did with a designer’s eye in October 2008 at Andrea Luciani’s (Elle Marmi).

Andrea wouldn’t let me do anything before I put my feet back again in at least one quarry. That’s what happened: one day among blocks of marble. When I went back to my desk, I started drawing objects only 3cms thick. I didn’t want to tackle the marble as a mass or a block…but to approach it as a slice.

Working with the “marble” material wasn’t an accident after all.

Beyond the fact that it’s a fashionable material today in design, I wanted to bring the marble to face a much more industrial language of combinations and technicality. Almost a serial production approach. I wanted to assemble the marble with other materials but not only that. I wanted to confront it, to connect it. A work on details with almost mechanical assembly. The contrast with a noble material and the other that’s here only to support it: a landscape made of colored basis and dark marble slabs.
A fragile vision of a foot seeking balance and thickness crushing it.

The difficulty with marble is its weight. It’s heavy and it’s not naturally solid: this is where the Européene de Marbre company intervenes, with Edouardo Soares as the principal actor. I quickly realize that the production of all the pieces with metallic structure also needs reinforcement: such as the honeycomb element, both structural and weight reducer.
Each piece is carefully studied by the technical bureau of EDM before it went for production in Portugal.

I chose to work with dark marbles. The black marquina and the absolute black granite.

A trip to Portugal is necessary. From one side of the country, the metal region in the North, and at the other end, the marble region in the South. A finesse in the production and the mastering of technique, both for the metal work and for the marble. I leave Portugal eager to see the pieces in dialog together in Brussels: “Marble Connections”.

Victoria Wilmotte, november 2009

Biography

Born in 1985 in Paris, Victoria Wilmotte lives and works in Paris. Studies in Interior design in Paris - Camondo school. Graduated with a Master degree in Product design - RCA (Royal College of Arts) in London, under Ron Arad’s direction. Followed by par Michael Marriott, Luke Pearson and Kenneth Grange.

Recent Exhibitions

• Jeunes Pousses - Collective exhibition, Tools Galerie, Paris, April 2009.
• New move - Collective exhibition in collaboration with Artemide, Aram Gallery, London, September 2007.
• Superdesignmarket, London, Southbank, (London design festival) colordotsfactory, September 2007
• RCA Summer Show 2008, diploma project.
• Exhibition at Pierre Alain Challier’s gallery, artists jewels, Colordotsfactory, December 2008.

Victoria Wilmotte’s work is inseparable from the person: straight forward, unique, extremely demanding. Her curious eye captures multiple details photographed, analyzed, digested, like necessary food, the one that feeds her passion for objects.

Beyond design as a professional discipline, Victoria is addicted to shapes, to sculpted geometry, to materials ready to be carved. Her creation process is actually similar to sculptor’s works: judging emptiness and fullness, sculpting to find the right angle or the imperceptible curve, polishing surfaces until the desired texture is reached. Just till the hand feels the satisfaction at first glance. Instinctive, she chases her original impressions from drawings to objects, looking for the primitive excitement of her initial vision.
From marble, to metal, wood, plastic or ceramic, the chosen material follows Victoria’s exercise of form. While forms transcend any notion of functionality. From this implacable personal logic, highly evocative objects are born, delicately hanging between two worlds, those of art and design.

Aline d’Amman