Patricia Ribault

Patricia Ribault first studied Applied Arts and Ceramics in Paris at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art, before moving to England, Venice and Tunisia to learn glassblowing. During these years, she also worked for cultural organisations such as UNESCO or Turquoise Mountain Foundation. In 2000, she went back to Paris to study Aesthetics at Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and completed a PhD in arts and sciences of art in 2009. Her doctoral thesis – »Ontology of Craft« (»Pour une ontologie du geste«) – is an attempt to make sense of artisanal practice in today’s industrial world. Between 2010 and 2015, she was Head of Research at l’Ecole Supérieure d’Art et de Design de Reims (France). She has also been running a seminar at l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris since 2011. In 2015, she co-directed with art historian Thomas Golsenne a special edition of the French review »Techniques & Culture« entitled »Essais de bricologie. Ethnologie de l’art et du design contemporains«. She also writes for various scientific reviews, catalogues or collective books, such as »The Journal of Modern Craft« or »Appareil«. She has been Junior Professor in History and Theory of Gestaltung at the Cluster of Excellence »Image, Knowledge, Gestaltung« and at the Institute for Cultural History and Theory of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin since March 2015. She is also a member of the Hermann von Helmholtz Center for Cultural Techniques.

Research interests

Relationship between technique, body and work, ontology of arts and crafts, logic of industrial and design processes.