By Guillaume and Sophie Le Penher's workshop

Today let’s visit Rezé together, a very nice place on south bank of the Loire river, facing the city of Nantes.

 We shall be greeted by  Sophie et Guillaume Le Penher, a couple of visual artists with a multi faceted vision, a strong taste for the exploration of art materials, and for continuously taking up new challenges .

At work and in their family life Sophie and Guillaume share everything : creation, innovation and love. They explore several paths at the same time, have seldom boundaries, and can hardly  be classified.They are like tightrope walkers, walking along their overflowing creativity, supported by an extensive experience, a constant willingness to learn  and by a top equipped workshop.

 Sophie and Guillaume share with us a part of their investigations and guide us through their universe, complex and bursting with ideas.

Through sculptures, a combination of precious wood and cast glass, they explore the vegetal world, getting inspired by their passion for gardens.

Materials and textures, combined with a large scope of colors,  match together and reach a fine balance.

This harmony as well as Sophie and Guillaume’s unique creativity are notably sourced in their many travels in China.

These travels allow Sophie and Guillaume Le Penher to come back with questions on our background, our history and our future.

Then in the  « Palimpsestes »* they enjoy to investigate the relationship between materials and men. They rely on their own specific knowledge, and create palimpsestes made of re-sanded marquetry and archive documents.  This is all about the passing of the years and of time making his mark on materials. It is really similar to examine a tree’s growth rings to know how old it is.

*Palimpseste : stems from the Greek “palimpsestos”, “scrapped anew”. A manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing

Sophie and Guillaume enjoy exploring the Future through the Please Touch concept, along very simple lines : turning art materials into touch and interactife interfaces ! When combining wood and glass materials (their favourite ones) with electronic, they break barriers down between art and the public, and multiply the potential applications for their trade.  And for what purpose ?  To supply new communication means to museums, private companies or private persons.

Would you like to drive your home automation system through a specific artwork ? Please contact them !

Their first réalisation, “Please Touch ! - Connected Art”, is in the form of a triptyque M-Material-Tool dedicated to Fine Arts.  Sophie and Guillaume interviewed their fellow artists, along the “portrait game” : “What if you were a material, a tool, …? Please Touch ! - Connected Art  breaks the codes, and very unusually invite the viewer to softly touch the surface of the central panel, a sculpture made of cast glass and palimpseste marqueterie. This results in the launch of videos on the related artists, and can also trigger several other mechanisms…

Sophie and Guillaume artworks are very often exhibited in France and abroad (The Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Austria, Korea, China, …) Several of their main pieces were sold through  auctions in Shanghaï.

 Sophie et Guillaume Le Penher are winners of the Fondation Nationale Banque Populaire as well as of the  Fine ArtsFondation EY. Their R & D program is supported by the BPI (banque publique d’investissement) and the French fund « Territoires d’Innovation ».

Would you like to discover some  other Sophie et Guillaume Le Penher creations, please visit Inspiration website : 

http://www.inspiration-afrenchatmosphere.com/en/creator/sophie-et-guillaume-le-penher