A living heritage

They account for almost 5% of GDP within the European Union (roughly USD 600 bn) and employ 8.5 million skilled professionals within the zone. While the artistic crafts or métiers d’art are now acknowledged as culturally and economically significant, this hasn’t always been the case. Far from it, in fact. Christiane Murner is the first leather craftswoman to have set up business in the canton of Geneva in 35 years. As she explains, “For a long time, artistic craftsmanship went unrecognised. When mass consumption put its very existence at risk, it relocated. In Switzerland, the only branch of training in leather crafting was dropped and was only recently reintroduced, in 2013, after a gap of more than ten years.”

The "watershed"

Christiane Murner, who now trains apprentices herself, spoke at length about her career and her concerns as an independent craftswoman at the press conference for the 9th Journées Européennes des Métiers d’Art (JEMA) that took place in Geneva earlier this month. That such a conference should even exist reflects a change in mentalities. Gérard Desquand, who chairs France’s Institut National des Métiers d’Art, spoke from over forty years’ experience: “The métiers d’art have been through some highs and lows,” he declared. “Not so very long ago, these professions were so much in the shadows that young people weren’t even considering them as a career. They thought they had no future. Over recent years, however, we’ve witnessed renewed interest in values of authenticity which the métiers d’art perfectly convey.”

This “watershed”, as Gérard Desquand calls it, is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the Journées Européennes des Métiers d’Art themselves. Launched in France in 2002, the JEMA are now held across 13 European Union countries. Geneva was the first Swiss canton to take part, in 2011, with Vaud following its lead last year and Jura making its debut this year. “People all over the world want to consume products with an identity, products with a soul, and the métiers d’art make this possible. The time taken to produce them, the creativity and manual intelligence behind them, and their lifespan are part of their added value.” This three-day event aims to promote the diversity and vibrancy of these professions by inviting the general public to meet their practitioners.

Open days at Vacheron Constantin

Public enthusiasm has been so great, in fact, that the programme has been extended. In Geneva, craftsmen and women in forty professions will be opening their workshops and studios at thirty separate locations. They include a scenographer, a sculptor, a saddler, a glassblower, a taxidermist and a restorer of works on paper. Three schools are also taking part, including the Geneva School of Watchmaking, as is Manufacture Vacheron Constantin, a longstanding partner to the event. It will be hosting open days at its historic site on Quai de l’Île, where visitors can admire an engraver, a gem-setter and a master watchmaker at work. Also on show will be an exhibition of chronograph watches, presented from a historical perspective which emphasises the Manufacture’s particular contribution. “Vacheron Constantin supports the Journées Européennes des Métiers d’Art in Geneva, where it was established in 1755, as well as in Paris and Milan,” says Chief Executive Juan-Carlos Torres. “A rare occurrence, this year we are opening the doors of the place where the Manufacture forged its destiny. A return to our origins, one could say, for the pleasure of showing others what we do. Our wish is to bring these age-old skills out from behind closed doors and into the spotlight. It is our duty to safeguard this diversity of knowledge by keeping these professions alive.”

*9th Journées Européennes des Métiers d’Art
27-29 March 2015

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