An exhibition for Hermès
At its core, the world of Hermès is a world of beautiful materials, mastered by highly skilled artisans. Festival des Métiers is a travelling exhibition that offers visitors the chance to meet the craftsmen of the house. We created three interactive exhibits that reveal the manufacturing details that normally remain invisible to the naked eye.
Various work stations showed the diverse skills and phases that precede a precious accessory. Typical to the festival is its unpretentious character, or as the French say, “with its feet on the ground and its head in the sky”.
It prompted us to create digital additions that fitted in naturally with the overall feel of the exhibition. Steering away from technology-minded and rather alienating “highlight interventions" often seen in exhibition design, we opted for digital moments with artistic, fanciful and didactic qualities.
Magnifying goggles traditionally used by the specialized metalworkers inspired Random to create Digital Binoculars that make one peer into a Museum Grade vitrine filled with the House’s accessories.
Through the goggles, spectators see the manual fabrication and assembly steps from an artisan’s angle, scaled to the point it feels as if doing it themselves.
At the touch of one’s fingertips, the video slows down dramatically, and a dance of materials being woven together with grace and perfection unfolds itself.
At the leatherworking station, a Digital Picture Frame lets spectators see the material through the eyes of the craftsman.
Life marks, wrinkles and inferior parts of the leather lead the artisan to decide how to lay out and cut the pattern of each Hermès bag.
