Photo: Tadzio, 2015 © Fondation d'entreprise Hermès
From September 13th, HermèS will hold the "Hands That Never Sleep: Hermès Artist Residency Exhibition" at Ginza Maison HermèS.

The exhibition will introduce the works and creative processes of artists who have participated in the "Artist Residency" program organized by the Hermès Foundation. This will be the second time the exhibition has been held in Japan, following the 2014 "Condansation" exhibition (which introduced 16 artists who stayed at the museum from 2010 to 2013). The "Artist Residency" program, launched in 2010, aims to bring together artisans with skills handed down through generations and highly creative contemporary artists for shared and collaborative work. Artists primarily reside at Hermès' various workshops, primarily based in France, where they gain exposure to exceptional craftsmanship and the opportunity to work with materials that are usually difficult to access, such as silk, leather, silver, and crystal. Through repeated trial and error, each artist collaborates with the artisans to create unique, new works. This exhibition showcases nine artists who participated in the program between 2014 and 2017. Entitled "Sleepless Hands," the exhibition focuses on the movements and gestures of the artisans and artists. The hands of the artisans, whose work embodies powerful messages of skilled technique, will, and emotion, and the hands of the artists, who boldly "let things take their course" with the materials, inviting freeform forms and processes. The exhibition explores the process by which materials are transformed by the addition of other unconscious factors, such as abstract thought and chance gestures, to the repetitive, unconscious actions that result in refinement through advanced techniques.

Io Burgard
Photo: Tadzio, 2016 © Fondation d'entreprise Hermès
The first period of the exhibition will run from September 13th to November 4th, and the second period will run from November 15th to January 13th, 2019. During the exhibition, performances and artist talks will be held, and works created during the residency program will be exhibited alongside each artist's previous work, providing a multifaceted introduction to the encounter between the imagination of young artists and the materials and techniques of Hermès.