FRAC Champagne-Ardenne

Salomé Chatriot,
Zebra-Striped, Tiger-Striped, Clouded, Iridescent, Colourful, Distressed, Lashed, Patchy, Streaked, Flashy, Torn, Unexpected, Miserable, Glorious, Magnificent…

Exhibition from December 18th, 2025 to January 11th, 2026
End of exhibition events on Saturday, January 10th, starting at 3 p.m.

Salomé Chatriot’s first solo exhibition in a French public institution is the result of a collaboration between the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne and the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès.

Since 2010, as part of its artist residency programme, the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès has invited visual artists each year to explore Hermès workshops’ expertise. The artists are given carte blanche to produce works in collaboration with exceptional artisans in the fields of silk, leather goods, crystal and goldsmithing. The artists participating in this programme are mentored by prominent figures from the art world. For the 2024-2025 season, Emmanuelle Luciani, curator, artistic director and artist, has selected and accompanied several visual artists, including Salomé Chatriot.

Salomé Chatriot’s artistic practice focuses on breath, which she treats as an active protocol. Breathing becomes a score and organises the transition between painting, sculpture, video and installation. Each work represents a stage in the artist’s respiratory cycle. By developing her own materials – galalith extracted from milk, enamel, egg glaze, electronic devices – the artist produces ambivalent forms: unstable bodies, both extensions and constraints, precarious instruments of power and dependence. The title of the exhibition refers to the character of Harlequin in Michel Serres’s book Le Tiers-Instruit, whose patchwork coat turns out to be his skin, both body and costume.

In the spring of 2025, Salomé Chatriot worked with leather craftsmen at the Maroquinerie de la Sormonne in Tournes, not far from Charleville-Mézières. Having been introduced to their exquisite techniques, she created a series of leather sculptures in various shades entitled Partita, which synthesises the encounter between unique craftsmanship and the organic and technological worlds dear to the artist. Building on this immersion in the world of leather, Salomé Chatriot wanted to expand her research and extend her relationship with the material by producing a new sculpture for this exhibition: D.C. Al Coda.

To mark the end of the exhibition, the FRAC Champagne-Ardenne and the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès invite you to join them on Saturday, January 10, 2026, for a performance by Salomé Chatriot, followed by a round table discussion reflecting on her experience at the Maroquinerie de la Sormonne, in the presence of Emmanuelle Luciani, Anaïs Dervin and Éric Pignon, the artisans who participated in the residency.

This exhibition benefited from the support of Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council.