Meeting + interview with Emilie Brichard from Malo Atelier
Brutal. went to meet the ceramist Emilie Brichard/Malo Atelier in her studio in St Etienne. Let's discover his universe through an interview.
What is your background and your training to get to ceramics?
DPLG architect, I worked in an agency for ten years. I took my first course in a ceramics workshop a year after graduating, I guess I needed something more concrete than architectural projects, which span several years. Fascinated by tableware and attracted by Japan, and Asia more broadly, without formalizing it, I naturally continued to attend ceramic workshops from time to time, and slowly trained myself in turning.
Are you self-taught or did you learn from someone else?
For the shooting, Augusto Tozzola. Due to lack of time, I only toured with him, very little filming, no cooking at his place. Everything related to enameling, firing, the organization of the workshop, I learned by practicing alone.
Do you remember your first play?
No, but I remember my first hours sitting in front of a lathe. Then, I kept very few parts, the fruit of the morning of shooting was generally recycled before the parts began to dry.
How would you define your job?
Simplicity. For the dishes, it seems important to me. My pieces are functional, intended for daily or even intensive use in restaurants. And they don't mean more than what they are, plates, bowls. No chatter or concepts in my work, today it seems that everything always has to say more. I just do the dishes.
What is your creative and manufacturing process?
I decline without intellectualizing traditional forms of utilitarian pottery, bowls, plates, ramekins, cups. I let my hands on the lathe find the right curve, silhouette and proportions.
What is your favorite technique? Your favorite moment in the process?
Without hesitation filming. Anything that comes with that shaping time in the process takes me a little further away from that fun, turning, glazing, not to mention sanding and wrapping, but that's part of the game.
What is your favorite material? What do you like about him?
Puisaye stoneware brings depth and character to the enamels, even if firing defects can be more difficult to control during firing.
What inspires you apart from ceramics?
Shorelines, restaurants, cities and travel.
Can you tell us about one or more books on ceramics or something else?
Practice of stoneware enamels by Daniel de Montmollin, the writings of Jean Girel, and books on the work of ceramists, Gisèle Buthod-Garçon, Elisabeth Joulia, Lucie Rie, Edmund De Waal to name but a few.
Excluding ceramics, Samuel Beckett, always.
What are your last significant trips or your travel desires?
My travels to Japan and India. Of course, I really want to go back and stay there longer. More broadly, any edge of the sea attracts me, I have been thinking for a long time of moving to a coast, I am waiting to find the right moment and the right formula.
