Château de Rochechouart - Musée d’art contemporain de la Haute-Vienne.
Fondation d’entreprise Hermès annual programme of Artists’ Residencies. 

pictures_Tadzio and Aurélien Molle
︎ 2025

During her residency, Jenna Kaës discovered the various trades practiced at the Maroquinerie de la Tardoire, in Montbron (in the central western French department of Charente). Immersing herself in local traditions, folklore and myth, she was drawn in particular to the fadet, a legendary, often mischievous creature associated with the world of fairies or pixies. This research resonated with her fascination for bats – nocturnal animals often attributed with evil powers, in the Western tradition. At the outset of her residency, Jenna Kaës visited the Château de Rochechouart, which immediately became integral to the mindscape of her project. Accompanied by artisans at the leather workshop – notably Cécile Coiteux and Emmanuel Villette – Jenna Kaës worked with off-cuts of black tanned leather, highlighting their mottled texture, and mounting them on brass frames to form majestic wings around a body in hand-blown glass. The resulting four pieces, in two different sizes, compose a family of hybrid creatures, alluring and troubling in equal measure.