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Célia Bruneau welcomed us to her Parisian flat for a day where we were able to discover her universe: the one of embroidery.

Who are you and where do you come from?

My name is Célia, I was born in 1992 and I grew up in the Parisian region.

What is your background?

After getting a high school diploma specialised in Art History and a diploma as a stylist, I did one thing after another. I’ve always loved trying my hand at everything, discovering other worlds, and I also had to work to pay my rent in Paris. Creation has always been part of my daily life. Three years ago, I realised that I wanted it to be the very centre of my life. I wanted to feel free. So, I quit my job in fashion and gave up my flat a few months after that to travel around the world. To vanish for a moment and then come back again. I spent the first lockdown in Los Angeles. For me, it was an opportunity to create and start new projects.

What is your view of art today?

I feel like art is becoming more global and accessible due to social networks and the Internet. Creation seems bolder, more collective, more approachable. It encourages new mixes and fabulous exchanges. Art becomes total and owns up to what it is, from bread to painting by way of manicures. Today, what I miss is coming into contact with art. Going to the museum, the opera, the theatre or a concert. So, I accumulate even more images, books, music, films. But it’s not quite the same.

Why embroidery?

Embroidery happened by accident and through boredom. I’ve always stayed free and creative by working on several projects and activities at the same time. Over the years, embroidery became essential and recurrent. It’s a technique that allows me to express the rhythm of a line, colours, a universe or a landscape that I have in mind, in a very personal and spontaneous way. I’ve often felt like I could justify my drawings with embroidery. My drawings are kind of naive and instinctive. They let me really examine what I want in terms of colours and composition. Embroidery gives me more freedom and accentuates this naïveté while adding its own complexity: through the technique, details, effects of materials, reflections of yarn, etc. Embroidery sets its own tempo and breaks away from the immediacy of a line on paper. It requires patience and acts as a form of meditation.

What message would you like to share through your creations?

I don’t have any particular message to share. Or maybe emotions?

What are your sources of inspiration? Your influences?

The landscapes that I embroider are the interpretation of a moment, a perception of a place. They are also the result of long observations – either real or from photos that I took – to see even farther, to be able to multiply the points of view, to blur perspectives and to represent this location in a different way each time. These shapes and colours express the desire to represent, the desire to share my sensations of these horizons. I also draw inspiration from images. I have so many influences: Georgia O’Keeffe, David Hockney, Japanese woodcuts, Nicolas de Staël, choreographers such as Martha Graham and Pina Bausch… But I especially like to discover archived illustrations and images: antique stones, illustrations from the Middle Ages, in Europe and Asia, engravings of the cosmos, architectural details, frescoes… Sometimes it’s just a fragment of a piece that lights a spark and gives me an idea.

You also embroider on clothing. What is your vision of fashion?

Fashion has always accompanied and inspired me. I particularly love vintage, the pleasure of finding one-of-a-kind pieces, putting outfits together, combining colours. For several years now, I’ve felt more detached and spontaneous in terms of what I wear. I admire people’s looks and, in the end, I’m more inspired by my friends than by what I see in magazines.