Pauline Rip
- La Tannerie Fantastique
- Riding Ghosts
- Elficology : the harvest of morning dew
- Meet Meat
- Lowfoot
Information
Pauline Rip
Information
DESIGN SCENOGRAPHY
Co-created with Jonas Hejduk
Exhibition
• La Tannerie Fantastique, Chapelle du Saint-Esprit, Auray, France, June 2025 - September, 2025. Solo show.
• Diner is served, Design Biennale Rotterdam, Schiedam, 2025
Prize
• Bourse de Création, winners, Cultural Centre Athéna, 2024.
Collaboration
• Lecture, EESAB Lorient, 2025.
• Workshop, EESAB Lorient, 2025.
• Sponsored by Canon Nederland, 2025.
Press
• Ouest France,2025
• Le télégramme, 2025.
• Où sortir ?, 2025.
This ecological fable reinvents traditional crafts within a fantastic folklore rooted in Brittany, bearing witness to the triumph of nature over human exploitation. It immerses the viewer in a marvelous yet unsettling world where legends come to life, while conveying a contemporary message about the importance of respecting the environment.
Blending dreamlike poetry with the macabre, this monumental installation immerses visitors in the world of a Breton tannery where the hides of imaginary creatures are processed. It echoes a local reality: in Auray (city in Britanny), two tanneries are said to have once polluted the waters to the point of causing a death by tetanus. This incident became the starting point for exploring contemporary issues: the exploitation of the giant Hok-Bras becomes a metaphor for human control over nature and the impoverishment of soils; and the emergence of a new protective deity in Celtic mythology, C’holos Glas, the seaweed colossus born of pollution, transforms a reviled symbol into an ecological figure.
The space is filled with references to Breton culture: motifs inspired by traditional costumes, a specific color palette, a tribute to designer Jeanne Malivel, a Vannetais song created for the occasion, and a concert by the band Cheval de Trait—until it becomes impossible to tell whether reality inspires fiction, or the other way around.
The scenographic objects—benches, mirrors, lamps, vase, blankets—remain functional in a domestic setting, echoing an approach that seeks to bring fiction into our interiors. No animal leather has been used: the two designers believe in the power of fiction to rethink our ways of living and our material cultures, in line with sobriety and respect for life. For fiction, by its very essence, liberates the imagination.
“We have every reason to be concerned about the disappearance of the species that exist today. But who worries about the disappearance of beings that do not exist? For they too are greatly endangered!”
— Bill François, The Eloquence of the Sardine, Fayard, 2019