Le Génie 2.0: Excellence, Création, Innovation Des Industries Textiles De Lyon Et Sa Région (Engineering 2.0: Excellence, Creation, Innovation Of The Textile Industries Of Lyon And Its Region)
For the first time and thanks to the support of Unitex and the Première Vision association, the textile manufacturers in our region are mobilizing to exhibit, on more than six hundred square meters, the most exceptional pieces they produce, chefs -technical, drawing or luxury and prestige fabrics.
In May 2015, the Museum of Textiles inaugurated a major exhibition devoted to the production of silk in Lyon between the XVII th and early XX th century, entitled The Genius of the factory . The course, through royal or imperial orders, through technical, artistic masterpieces or historical pieces, made it possible to understand that the whole city of Lyon, and its region, had lived to the rhythm of the movements of the profession to weave, in order to satisfy the most demanding sponsors. A large part of the exhibition was devoted to the pieces presented and awarded at universal exhibitions since 1851, recalling that these events constituted a major stake in Lyon’s emulation and excellence.
The Genie 2.0. Excellence, creation, innovation in the textile industries of Lyon and its region , which will inaugurate on December 17, is, in a way, the extension of this first exhibition, and its contemporary component. It will be mostly a historical event, bringing together, for the first time, like the galleries of the Lyon silk Universal Exhibition of the XIX th and XX th century, the main forty houses in the Rhône-Alpes textile sector. Each house was encouraged to offer the most exceptional pieces from its catalog (unique weavings, specific orders, unrivaled know-how, rare materials, etc.) in order to reveal the diversity, extreme quality and competitiveness of the sector.
Each selected piece is a masterpiece, worthy of public collections. Several manufacturers have also agreed to donate, at the end of the event, the pieces exhibited for the museum’s collections. The scenography, inspired by the Universal Exhibitions, will present the widths or the finished products by typology, and not by house (plain, shaped, printed, technical fabrics, knits…). It will highlight the technical feats of strength, collaborations with designers or artists, the work of designers and map makers, the preciousness of materials, innovations and patents. Above all, it will show, through more than four hundred pieces, that the manufacturers, heirs to the skills and demands of their elders, continue more than ever to produce real masterpieces.
Image © Musée des Tissus de Lyon, Pierre Verrier.