The two artists have been inseparable since meeting in 2023 on La Bonne Aventure, the SLOW gallery's podcast.
From this first, almost prophetic, conversation, a friendship was born and has been nourished through regular exchanges. This has now been translated into a joint exhibition, which has been designed specifically for this venue. Both artists work with materials: printmaking and embroidery, thread and paper, wood and fabric. Hélène Glowinski practises xylography, a printing technique that uses a wooden matrix which is inked and pressed onto paper. Sandrine Torredemer usually starts with photographs, which she interprets and transcribes to bring them to life. In both cases, an object precedes the work. This transfer becomes a memory mechanism: the memory of wood, the memory of reality.
The window as a motif and a passage
At the heart of the exhibition, the window is not just a decorative element, but also a means of viewing. It organises space, framing and separating to mark a boundary while allowing passage. There is a tension between what is visible and what remains hidden, between the protection of the interior and the projection towards the exterior. For Hélène Glowinski and Sandrine Torredemer, this theme resonates with their initial professional careers in architecture and urban planning, respectively. They both learned to understand spaces, sense the need for circulation and consider the relationship between the interior and exterior.
The window characterises the point at which these flows converge and asserts itself as the porous boundary between inhabited space and landscape, viewer and viewed. In Hélène Glowinski's engravings, the sheet of paper itself becomes a window. Sometimes cut out, fragmented, and glued in different planes, it creates depth and visual openings. The artist penetrates this intimacy and offers interior views. The window becomes an opening onto our sensibility. Composed of wood grain, paper fibres and ink deposited and transferred, the material carries within it the memory of the gesture. "I escape – I wait – I imagine – I watch": her works explore those suspended moments when we place ourselves outside of time.
At La Filature, Sandrine Torredemer's studio, the window is constructed using layered textiles. Fabric fragments are assembled and embellished with embroidery to create architectural scenes that demonstrate remarkable attention to detail.
The artist depicts characters gazing at the horizon through a window, builds façades that appear to be inhabited, and reveals miniature worlds as if they were being observed through a keyhole. The frame then becomes a stage, offering glimpses of interiors, fragments of façades, and even pieces of the city.
Each of the works is filled with delicate poetry and unfolds its own narrative, inviting us to imagine the multiple stories, whether melancholic or happy, but always intimate. This exhibition highlights the connections between these two artists' worlds and their shared vision. The focus on windows thus invites introspective exploration: stepping outside the frame without denying it; broadening the field without breaking the anchor. The window evokes the desire for new experiences and what remains to be discovered. For both artists, it is a starting point rather than a boundary — an invitation to look beyond.
A few lines about Hélène Glowinski
Hélène Glowinski trained in architecture before devoting herself fully to engraving. She develops a body of work conceived in series, like an encyclopaedia of the senses. Her work explores notions such as impression, trace, transfer and memory, engaging in a close dialogue with the materiality of her chosen media: wood, paper and ink.
The materiality of her work is accentuated in her recent pieces, for which she has set aside the mechanical press in favour of manual printing. She transfers the ink onto the paper by pressing with her fingers, the palm of her hand and various tools. These gestures leave traces on the medium, which, in some pieces, resembles skin that has been caressed, rubbed or scratched.
A few lines about Sandrine Torredemer – LA FILATURE
Sandrine Torredemer's work defies categorisation, transcending any fixed definition. Using fabrics that she has collected, cut and assembled and enhanced with embroidery, she creates scenes of great precision where planes, perspectives and minute details overlap. A former urban planning engineer, she retains the compositional rigour she acquired during her training, which she employs in her profoundly free, poetic and inspired body of work. Her tiny characters and embroidered phrases, with their mantra-like or cheeky accents, infuse her work with a delicate, deeply human vitality.