Le Ruisseau is a ceramic duo formed by Eglantine Merle and François Marteau. Inspired by the Histoire d'un ruisseau written by the poet-geographer Elisée Reclus, nature is a powerful source of reflection and inspiration.
Our creations are associated with study sites such as foreshores, mountains and rivers, with which we connect through walking, collecting and sketching.
Back in the studio, we embody the mental images, sensations and emotions associated with these landscapes in ceramic form. By integrating our interiors, our ceramics become microcosms, pretexts for contemplation.
We prefer to work with a texture that develops slowly. In a world where the virtual, the screen and distance are very present, our textures invite us to lose ourselves in reveries of matter.
They praise ancient minerals as well as living things that don’t have a voice: shells, seaweed, rivers, water, wind… We are particularly interested in exploring the plasticity of clay, borrowing its gestures from nature: stretching, twisting, pressing and rolling.
With our ceramics, we want to pay tribute to the fundamental links that bind us to nature and support the idea of Elisée Reclus: “Man is nature becoming aware of itself”.