The contemporary practice of cabinetmaking by Benoît Vauthier & Manu Lerendu
Adrien HUGOO
Sales & communications
Lyon, France
Master’s student in Design, Arts & Crafts, and Industry
Jean Monnet University, Saint-Étienne, France
Rodigo BENTO MENDES
Master’s student in Design, Arts & Crafts, and Industry
Jean Monnet University, Saint-Étienne, France
Benoît Vauthier and Manu Lerendu are French wood sculptors and cabinetmakers based in La Petite Raon (Vosges).
They met in 2012 while studying at the Institut Québécois d’Ébénisterie in Canada.
In their view, time, space, and contemplation have become rare and precious. This is how their approach was born: bringing hand-sculpted landscapes to life on functional surfaces. In a world where industrial design tends to standardize and optimize everything, they have chosen a more poetic path. They want their furniture to have character, to engage the viewer, and to invite contemplation and daydreaming.
Adrien HUGOO, Benjamin VINOT & Rodrigo BENTO MENDES : You met at the Institut Québécois d’Ébénisterie. How did this training, and more broadly your experience in Quebec, shape your vision of the profession and the way you combine craftsmanship, design and artistic creation today?
Benoît VAUTHIER : We didn’t end up at this school for the same reasons. For me, it was clearly a career change; I was in Canada at the time. Ultimately, in France, I was a freelance lighting technician and lighting designer for theatre and concerts. So I liked this school, with its three-year course where you really get started in cabinetmaking. I knew nothing about it, I didn’t know what a tenon or a mortise was, nothing at all. So, in three years, I was able to start with the basics of woodworking and finish three years later with a diploma, which was also focused on design in the final year. What I like is combining these things a little bit. .. In fact, that’s what I did in lighting design: I liked to combine both the technical and the artistic, those two aspects. And so I found that again with wood and at this school.
Manu LERENDU : For me, it was for completely different reasons. I had a lot of experience in France in the field of woodworking. And it’s true that this training course covered the basics. So I wanted to move abroad to try a few years in Quebec, and I also wanted to see how arts and cabinetmaking were taught on the other side of the Atlantic. I wanted to know what the inspirations and values surrounding the arts and crafts were. And for me, it was more from an educational perspective. I wanted to become a teacher, or to pass on my knowledge, so I had that in mind: to gain as much experience as possible by relearning the basics in a different way.
As a result, I got a bit bored, haha, with everything related to cabinetmaking, but there was a really different approach, a different mindset in entrepreneurship, in the way of evolving in the professional field. That’s what nourished me more. In fact, as the classes were a bit slow for me, I had full access to the school and could really create freely and exchange ideas with other craftspeople. And so we quickly branched out into entrepreneurship, alongside our studies. And that was a great learning experience for me. It was the main part of my training in Quebec.
A. H., B. V. & R. B. M. : Your practice is based on a highly structured partnership. How did this collaboration come about and how do you manage to combine your respective sensibilities and skills in a shared creative process?
B. V. : It all started at school, where Manu was actually a year ahead of me. So we weren’t in the same class, but in the evenings, the workshops were open to both of us. We started working a little bit on our respective projects, and then, little by little, we started working together, first on a competition piece. It was an exhibition of arts and crafts, and with this competition, we could present a piece on the theme of resonance. So we said to ourselves, “Why not present a piece together?” That’s really how it started.
And since it was a competition piece, it had no practical use, so we had fun with it. It was 150 gears turning together, a bit like a kinetic painting. And since we won the competition, we thought, “Ah, maybe there’s something we can do with this!” That’s how we were immediately drawn away from the field of applied art.
M. L. : I think what was interesting about this project was that we really started from the sector we were in. We said to ourselves, “Right, we’re not going to make a piece of cabinetry.” And we said, “Well, we’re going to position ourselves as visual artists, make an art installation and get completely out of that thing.”
We divided up the work. Right away, we really saw our affinities on each side, what each of us could bring to the other. It also brought a lot of tension to the creative process, but that made it very interesting. There was a bit of an ego battle at first, then it took some time to accept our roles. But once we did, it was much more effective.
A. H., B. V. & R. B. M. : Your work deliberately straddles the boundary between art, craftsmanship and design. How would you define this balance, and how is it reflected in your pieces?
M. L. : We always play between pure geometric shapes and the texture of raw materials, and for us it is really this balance between the two that creates the link between craftsmanship and artistry. Our pieces will always feature a circle, a square, a rectangle or a pure shape, and at some point we completely break it down and add a kind of material, which we call matiériste.
B. V. : We need to recognise straight away that it’s a table or that it’s a banner. The shape is clear, there’s no doubt about it. And then there is this accident that happens at a certain moment, and the accident must tell a story. That is the artistic part. The aim is not to be realistic, but dreamlike, so that the viewer can project themselves into it.
A. H., B. V. & R. B. M. : Wood is at the heart of your practice, but you have also experimented with other materials and tools, including digital ones. How do these technical choices inform or challenge your craftsmanship and artistic approach?
M. L. : At the time, we were very focused on 3D printing, digital control and laser engraving. It wasn’t about being at the service of the tools, but rather asking ourselves how we could use them with contemporary cabinetmaking techniques. We didn’t want to be dependent on these machines, but rather wanted them to help us work faster so we could go further artistically.
B. V. : Today, there are no CNC machines left in the mountains. We have developed our own tools and techniques to be more instinctive, to adapt to the grain of the wood. There is real added value in doing it by hand.
A. H., B. V. & R. B. M. : How do you envisage your practice evolving in the coming years, particularly in light of changes in scale and more immersive projects?
M. L. & B. V. : We would like to expand in size, not necessarily in terms of the company, but in terms of artistic pieces. We want to return to installations where you enter a whole new world. It is no longer a table, but an ensemble, a mountain range covering an entire space. We are returning to this aspect of visual art, while retaining the furniture. There’s never a dull moment. The subject is so vast. Every project is different, as is every client. There’s still so much more to do.
