Sight Unseen x Amelie x Charlotte Culot
"A serendipitous meeting in the mountains of Nepal birthed a new rug company called Maison Rhizomes, which employs the country’s expert artisans to create its colorful abstract designs based on the work of Belgian-French artist Charlotte Culot. Culot happened upon Berlin-based Hannah Vagedes up in the Himalayas in 2019, and the pair decided to join forces. By 2022 they had launched their first collection of 22 boldly patterned floor coverings, each modeled after a painting from Culot’s oeuvre, and which the duo hopes will be treated like artworks in their own right and passed down through generations.
Culot, who lives between Provence and Brittany, had already decided to turn her collage-like paintings into a collection of rugs when Vagades joined her as the business mind, coming from a family of yarn merchants and enjoying a career as a fashion director. Culot’s body of artworks were translated into hand-knotted silk, wool and linen rugs using natural pigments, and various weaving, washing, carving and drying processes. Each rug takes up to 16 weeks to complete, and the company also offers bespoke options. “By transforming these pieces into limited rugs, we create a new form of beauty that is both resilient and enduring, just like the art that inspired it,” said the duo.
Following the success of its debut line, the Maison’s next collection is a collaboration with painter Ludovic Philippon, whose own colorful, abstract works will also be given the same artisan treatment. “Each rug tells its unique story, a conversation between the artist and the art enthusiast,” Culot and Vagades said. “Our pieces are adopted into homes as a piece of art, generating a feeling of consciousness.” Maison Rhizomes has a showroom in Provence, and its products are also available through Galerie Amelie Maison D’art in New York and Paris, and individual stockists in Berlin, Brussels, and Byron Bay."
