The National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ) will welcome ‘Harnessing the Roots,’ an episode in the touring ‘Hermes Heritage’ exhibitions from March 4 to April 1.
‘Hermes Heritage’ exhibitions explore the history and heritage of the house, founded in 1837 by Thierry Hermes, through a series of objects that highlight iconic themes, colours and motifs from the house’s origins as a harness-maker and saddler until today.
After ‘Once Upon a Bag’, presented at NMoQ in 2022, ‘Harnessing the Roots’ focuses on harnesses and their metamorphoses. Because, over time, everything at Hermes changes – every mechanism, shape, type of attachment, suspension or clasp, initially conceived to equip a saddle or harness, is transmitted and transformed, playing a part in the design of a whole new object. Because lifestyles evolve, and with them the desires and needs of its customers.
Bruno Gaudichon, the curator of La Piscine Museum of Art and Industry in Roubaix (France), and curator of Harnessing the Roots, and Laurence Fontaine, the scenographer, decided to arrange the objects by way of a thematic, rather than chronological, narrative in order to reveal the links and dialogue that have always existed between the objects. The five themes are: (1) Brides de Gala, (2) The Horse and its Tack, (3) The Saddle, (4) Buckled Up and (5) Ties and Straps.
All of the creations highlighted in the exhibition come from three distinct sources: (1) the Emile Hermes collection – a collection of treasures and small curiosities, located at the Hermes flagship at 24, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honore in Paris (France), that Emile Hermes built up throughout his life, (2) the house’s Conservatory of creations, and (3) contemporary fashion, lifestyle and accessories collections. These objects are complemented by documentary archives and a film from 1962 in which Robert Dumas, heir and director of Hermes from 1951 to 1978, explains the art of saddlemaking. It is this intertwining of materials, stories and techniques that reveals the fantasy and magic of Hermes.
