GREGARIOUS MAKERS : FRAMEWORKS in WRESTLING and DESIGN“In search of a phenomenon that could be collective without being superior to the individual”

In the last two years at the textile departement I have been striving to understand the very ele-ments at stake in what I considered a determining experience of the sense of belonging to: an experience of the Social. I wanted to understand what in wrestling could be observed, used and transfered into a creative methodology, my very own working process but also into the representation of my work to an audience. I was intuitively convinced that if wrestling could be one of those platforms to generate social link so could be design. Like a laboratory operator I isolated three main elements that consisted the core of my interest:

The use that the wrestlers bodies were making of the ring was similar to my relation to the frame in textile investigations (physically and theoretically). Thewrestlers outfits revealedplayfulness andmanipulation in sourcing inspirations fromamultitude of domains. The performance in itslef was equally divided between the sake of displaying the process phase (themanipulationofthebodythroughaserieoftakings)withoutafocusontheoutcomeofthefightand, yet, a search in offering to the audience a rounded presentation, appealling and exhilarating.ThosethreefeaturesdefinedformeessentialcriteriatogenerateanexperienceoftheSocialwithin my design work.

I do not consider the graduation show as a conclusion or a demonstration. I wish for the public to walk with me through my work like an examiner would go through an autopsy report: compiling and exploring the isolated elements. I see myself as the centrifuging force in this open laboratorium. Thanks to my work the audi-ence is given the chance to be put into contact with what has emerged from this centrifuging process. That is to say the separation of the different particles present in the wrestling mixture. I do use in purpose the idea of centrifuging in this attempt of dividing elements. The mouve-ment of quick rotation that it implies really matches the effervescence one can experience at a wrestling match: the saturation of the sensory system. However this autopsy report --which consists in two hand-tufted woolen carpets regarding the frame-ringproblematic, a rangeofwrestling outfits andaccessories questionning thematter of phe-nomenon, a movie featuring the role of the ropes surrounding the wrestling ring-- are one part of the investigation. I also want the audience to take part into the crime reconstruction. That is to say to attend a real wrestling match hence the presence of professionnal wrestlers during the show. And the carpets? Carpets are for me one of this exemplary receptacle mentionned in the preamble of my book “Gregarious Maker: frameworks in wrestling and design”. It is indeed a receptacle for a multitude of datas: domestic, historical, and ethnological datas. It is also the very result of a sum of individual knowl-edge and traditional education and of course it is tangible. It is this « [phenomenon] that could be collective without being superior to the individual. ». Yet it deals with basic social issues such as territory and framework, absolutism and making, social ties and motifs. Moreover the use of carpets both in domestic and public domain is putting it at a decisive crossroads between individual life and communal life.Furthermore,likethewrestlingring,itdefinesaninsidefromanoutside,enclosesthebodytoacertainconfinementinitsmoves. Finally, I realised that carpets had also this playful feature regarding the mimicking of selfcon-tained territory. Indeed as a kid I owned one of those “tapis de jeu” (in french “play carpet”; in english “play mat”). I could not but think that those mats were the perfect combination of my very own problem-atic and interrogation, between entertainement, experience of the social as a territory and limitation of mouvements. The play mats became a source of inspiration for the motifs of the two carpets.

Louise Perot-Bonnellwww.louiseperotbonnell.com