BARLET SŒURS × KLINTBERG NEMER ET LES AMOUREUX

The genesis of the Barlet Sœurs project was accompanied by the discovery of Benny Nemer’s work, an artist, diarist, and researcher born in Montreal and based in Paris, whose universe immediately captivated the Barlet sisters.

Benny Nemer is the grandchild of Quebec potter Rosalie Namer, whose artistic kinship instilled in him an early aesthetic sensibility, a practice of epistolary writing, and a sympathy with flowers. His multidisciplinary practice approaches feeling and relation through an evolving ensemble of materials: the human voice, flowers and their vases, letters, postcards, tears and encounters in the archive.

In 2022, Benny and his friend, the Canadian artist August Klintberg, invited Barlet Sœurs to collaborate on their project KLINTBERG, NEMER ET LES AMOUREUX. They were welcomed into the Barlet Sœurs’ atelier in Saint-Symphorien, where they were given a series of seven faience vases, specially designed to accompany their poetic work. As part of their research on the traditions of floral gifting, Klintberg and Nemer decorated the vases with handwritten poems on floral and erotic themes, co-written via WhatsApp. A typography alternating the writing styles of each artist was developed to reflect the call-and-response method used in drafting the poems.

The artists then collaborated with Parisian florist Jacques Semer to create floral arrangements for each vase, photographed by Matt Frenot. A publication presenting these images was designed by Clément Wibaut and published in 2024. The photographs are supported by a commissioned text from writer Cy LeCerf Maulpoix, short reflective texts by Klintberg and Nemer, as well as the complete versions of the poems. The book was launched at Studio Ortie in spring 2024, with bouquets specially created for the vases by florist Jérémy Ramie.