Arrosia
In the forests of Gascony, Arrosia was born, from my encounter with the pine resin harvested. After discovering the cultural history of this area, I decided to combine all assets of the territory to add value to this forgotten resource. Pine resin singularity and identity motivated my desire to reconsider it as a good way to create social connection and boost local economy. By being attentive to the seasonality of the material and respect for its extraction, I imagined a production being able to evolve over time according to needs. This project is thus the fruit of a collaboration between nature, culture and know-how.
The project evolves >>> https://arrosia.fr
Thanks to my different trips to Nouvelle Aquitaine, I was able to understand the cultural history of the region, harvest materials and meet craftsman motivated to participate in the economic recovery of this resource.
I was interested in three categories of territory resources: Know-how, raw materials to shape products with all available local materials and the identity of the place. Know-how, to use the local system of production and collaborate with craftsmen. Territory identity, to take into accounts the resin history and inspiration from the land. This one has been shared around a collaborative production system that promotes respect for the temporality of matter. For that, I conducted a first experimental exploration, giving rise to a series of samples from which I identified material specificities, such as its colours, its textures, its stickiness, its waterproof or its lightness. However, to succeed in revealing its capacities and obtain exploitable materials for the continuation of the project I had to undertake a scientific protocol with a dialogue between the chemistry of the materials and the characterisation of their mechanical reactions. At the same time, this research was embodied by values of regional preservation, bringing me to a specific design process to the meetings made on site.
This approach arose from exchanges with craftsmen whom expressed their desires and their needs. At the end of their orders, I pursued my search to transform the raw material into semi-product capable of answering the technical constraints extracted from their demands. My work of chemistry then kept evolving until the design of objects.
