Michèle Forest

For Michèle Forest, thread is never merely a material. It becomes structure, language, and connection. At the intersection of constructivism and traditional textile techniques, her work unfolds a sculptural vocabulary where patient gestures and contemporary experimentation converge.

Through a deeply tactile relationship with the material, the artist creates using natural fibers and threads, as well as manufactured objects or items gathered from nature. Integrated into the fabric itself, these elements give rise to organic forms, halfway between plant-like evocations and animal-like presences. Crochet, knotting, and weaving thus become tools of construction, capable of generating volume, tension, and architectural forms.

By reimagining an ancestral medium, Michèle Forest shifts its conventional uses and blurs the boundaries between art and craft. Her work is rooted in a slow, deliberate pace, attentive to materials and their origins, in contrast to the logic of rapid production and immediate consumption.

A graduate of the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré in Paris and a member of the Ateliers d’Art de France, she also engages in educational outreach, sharing her research and techniques with diverse audiences.

Her works have been exhibited in France and internationally, notably in South Korea and Hong Kong, as well as at the Révélations biennials in France and China.

Through thread—whether knotted, woven, or crocheted—a broader reflection on life takes shape. Straddling fragility and resilience, disappearance and transformation, her pieces explore the interdependent relationships between humans, animals, and the environment. Her practice is both poetic and socially engaged, inviting us to reconsider how we inhabit the world.