RESTITUTION DE LA RÉSIDENCE CÉRAMIQUE/ART CONTEMPORAIN

Exhibition of the results of Adèle Gervaise and Anaïde Fontaine’s Ceramics/Contemporary Art residency in Martres Tolosane, to coincide with the Salon des Arts et du Feu. From 30 October to 1 November, then from 10 November at the Lycée Martin Malvy in Cazères. Opening on Tuesday 10 November at 11…

Ceramics and Contemporary Art Residency in Martres Tolosane

For the sixth year running, Anaïde Fontaine and Adèle Gervaise, who are due to graduate in 2026 from the ENSAD in Limoges, will be in residence from 14 to 25 September and then from 12 October to 1 November.

The exhibition will take place during the Salon des Arts et du Feu from 30 October to 1 November, as well as at the Lycée Martin Malvy on 10 November at 11.00 am.

Both artists are beneficiaries of the ENSAD’s ‘Coup de pouce’ scheme.

Anaïde Fontaine

Ruined architectures, troglodyte dwellings and dystopian worlds, from which other landscapes are reborn, barely sketched out, like the promise of a resilient world whose dream maps she draws.
Adèle Gervaise

Fluid, organic, humanoid hybrid forms that harbour the music of a serene otherworld, dependent on water, the artist’s hands and breath to bring it to life. For both of them, messages of hope.
Adèle and Anaïde were welcomed into the studios of Claire Marfisi and Massé Franck; their works were fired in the kilns at Dorine Cavagnal’s studio, at the Divin Bazar and at Ceradel; and the Martres-Tolosane Town Hall provided them with accommodation at the Boussens campsite.

Adèle Gervaise
Graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art et de Design de Limoges (2026).
Recipient of the ENSAD’s ‘Coup de pouce’ grant.

During my ceramics residency in Martres-Tolosane, I created a sound and water-based sculpture:
The Heron, guardian of the banks of the Chiragan.

Through its stillness, the heron is perceived in many traditions — from the contemplative rigour of ancient Egypt to the messenger of the waters in Japanese folklore — as a watchful figure. I have chosen to depict it here as a hybrid mythological creature, at the crossroads between animal, plant and human.

The sculpture operates via a gravity-fed hydraulic system and air vents. Water flows through the structure to activate various whistles, emitting hoarse, deep and raspy sounds reminiscent of the heron’s cry. The sudden release of water via a siphon gives the sound a striking attack, mirroring the sudden burst of this highly distinctive cry.

The flow of water, punctuated by the siphons, evokes the movements and floods of the Garonne. The installation can operate directly with its base in the river, drawing on its natural current.

In terms of its physical form, this sculpture is designed as a modular kit. Comprising interchangeable parts, it allows for live experimentation with different shapes of pipes and whistles, thereby encouraging sound exploration. To shape these forms, I borrowed moulds from the Musée de la Faïencerie in Martres-Tolosane and assembled various vases.

A complementary piece accompanies this project, *Les nez impériaux échappés de Chiragan* (*The Imperial Noses Escaped from Chiragan*), a nod to the famous Gallo-Roman busts at the site

Adèle Gervaise

Anaïde Fontaine
Graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art et de Design de Limoges, class of 2026.
Recipient of the ENSAD’s ‘Coup de pouce’ grant.

The Buried

Rock and dust are constantly carried from the Pyrenees towards the plains. The Garonne valley is covered in shifting soil, a clayey and sandy expanse sensitive to weather conditions.

In Chiragan on 23 May 1826, layers of the landscape were suddenly laid bare: the earth was swept away by water during a violent storm, the sediments displaced on a massive scale by the raging Garonne. Mysterious ancient busts and walls then emerged, buried for
centuries, then revealed, and buried once more.

Today, the earth’s depths are laid bare for the cement works: the roads are lined with large industrial sand pits, and a vast quarry stretches out on the outskirts of Martres-Tolosane.

During the residency, inspired by the archaeological, geological and industrial imaginaries of the Garonne Valley, my research explored the themes of burial, sedimentation and the awakening of a fantastical imagination regarding what lies beneath.
What might lie buried beneath millennia of clay and sand deposits?
What mysterious ruins might emerge from the earth on a stormy evening?

My ceramic work is shaped by experiments with firing. I present small, fantastical structures made of clay powder, revealing in cross-section the successive layers of material fused together not by water, but by fire.
Like yet another stratum, drawings are superimposed upon the ceramic work. A map of a slumbering world, dreamlike and marvellous catacombs, where abstract mineral textures and suggested veins appear, ghosts of buried architectures.

Anaïde Fontaine