PARIS.- From October 20th to 25th, 2025, Artcurial hosts “Thé Dansant”, a unique collection that celebrates the collaboration between Joana Vasconcelos and the Maison Bernardaud. This exhibition highlights the dialogue between two complementary visions of the teapot: one from an artist who reimagines traditional craftsmanship and the other from a historic manufacturer that transforms tradition into a field of artistic experimentation.

For 160 years, Bernardaud has been closely associated with Limoges porcelain, establishing itself as a globally recognized leader in French decorative arts and luxury products. This prestigious collaboration continues the company's century-long tradition of partnering with artists such as César, Omar Victor Diop, Jeff Koons, JR, Marina Abramovic, and Zao Wou-Ki. Together, they explore new forms of expression and challenge the conventions of porcelain work.

A receptacle of tea, stories, traditions, and dialogue between the past and the present, the teapot becomes a creative medium. The result of this union is the XL teapot, produced in a limited edition and available in five crochet-decorated models and seventy-one leaf-decorated models. Echoing the history of Portugal, the artist's native country, which was the first to import tea to Europe thanks to its maritime trade with the Far East, these monumental pieces elevate the teapot from a simple domestic object to a work of art. The product of three years of research, they pay tribute to the expertise and craftsmanship of this centuries-old tradition.

To create her crocheted teapots, Joana Vasconcelos collects old rosettes from flea markets. She then assembles them according to colour schemes inspired by various types of tea, such as Darjeeling, Oolong and chamomile. These compositions are connected by the embroiderers in her workshop and create a dialogue between hardness and softness, permanence and transience. As well as its decorative function, the crochet also serves a protective purpose, enveloping the teapot and combining traditional craftsmanship with symbolic meaning.

The leaf-decorated teapots reveal the artist's vibrant colour palette. The entire porcelain surface (including the sides, lid, handle and spout) is embellished with her signature forms. This all-over decoration presented a technical challenge that the factory's craftsmen successfully overcame, having never produced pieces of such scale before.

These monumental teapots bridge the gap between craftsmanship and art and are a genuine invitation to dialogue. In the spirit of ready-made art and repurposed objects, Joana Vasconcelos shows us the extraordinary in the ordinary while Bernardaud brings the tradition of porcelain into a contemporary creative field.

As part of this collaboration, a teapot with a 2-litre capacity and a matching mug, which are not liokmited editions, have been designed. These items will be available to purchase from the Artcurial Bookshop.