It overlooks the old Aubervilliers match factory (Seine-Saint-Denis), at the end of a central alley, corseted with red bricks.
The 45 m high chimney no longer spreads its toxic fumes on the surrounding market garden lands, as it was when it was built in 1904. Made of brick, millstone and freestone, it could boast of being one of the most beautiful 'Europe.
Dormant since 1962, the fireplace watches, benevolently, over the hundred students of the National Heritage Institute (INP).
The higher education establishment of the Ministry of Culture celebrates its 30th anniversary for Heritage Days.
It provides training in heritage restoration in Aubervilliers (20 graduates per year at the end of a master's degree), and in the profession of curator in Paris (50 outings per year).
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The seven streams (fire arts, graphic arts and books, textile arts, furniture, painting, photography and digital images, sculpture) each have a handful of students who have won an arduous competition, attempted by only a hundred young people each year. .
"The profession of restorer is at the convergence of the history of art, physics-chemistry and manual practice", summarizes the director of the INP Charles Personnaz.
The school has seven exceptional courses. / LP / Valentin Cebron
The school moved to this former factory in 2015. The 4,200 m2 of brick buildings have been fully restored.
They date back to 1902, when the Delabarre match factory was rebuilt here to have space to accommodate the 16 new machines, designed by two engineers.
They have developed the “ideal match”, less toxic than the previous one, and created machines that manufacture it in isolation, without risk of intoxication.
Mechanization then requires 4 workers instead of 11. But no worry about unemployment.
The consumption of matches soared to 40 billion pieces in 1908. The double in 1960. The appearance of stoves with integrated ignition and disposable lighters begins the decline of the red-headed twig.
The Aubervilliers factory will be one of the first to close, in 1962.
After passing through the French Documentation and a postal training center, the INP takes up residence in a nicely restored building.
The hundred or so students restore works of art on loan from French cultural institutions.
The INP has 300 on deposit.
Like this 14th century wooden Christ, belonging to the Louvre museum.
It was Martha, in the 5th and final year of the master's degree, who carried out the delicate operation of cleaning, consolidating and "reviving" the original layers of paint.
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The jury will come to assess and evaluate his study work at the end of October (the test was postponed because of the confinement).
"The objective is not to transform the object, but to consolidate and stabilize it in order to pass it on to future generations", explains Olivier Zeder, head of the restorers department.
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In the graphic arts section, the students stabilize the alterations in drawings from the Musée des Arts décoratifs.
Japanese paper is used to fill in the tears of the layers, with the tweezers.
In a neighboring room, Eric Laforest, conservator of books at the National Archives, teaches three students how to make an Arabic binding with flap, which appeared in the 11th century.
"You learn the technique to understand the restoration", smiles this speaker.
Asceline, 27, unfolds a parchment from 1669 entrusted by the town of Seyssel (Haute-Savoie).
He arrived bent over backwards.
“To make it searchable, I spent it in a humidification chamber, then I worked there for two days to fill in the gaps.
»Hear filling the holes and especially not to trace the missing letters.
This is the ethics of the profession.
Do not transform objects.
A whole hidden art, animated by patience and passion.
To discover this Saturday for the Heritage Days.
WE DISCOVER ... the "chemical evil" of the match
The match factory in the 1900s / Ville d'Aubervilliers
The match, known since Antiquity, was used to transport the fire of an already burning body.
The invention of the chemical match, producing fire, was a novelty that spread in the 1830s. This invention involved dipping one end of the match in a chemical paste forming the button of the match capable of s' ignite by simple rubbing on a rough surface.
Including on pants.
The immediate success of this invention replaced the steel or flint lighter.
In 1847, the capital employed 700 workers in the manufacture of matches.
But inhaling the white phosphorus used for the matchstick causes serious health problems.
This "chemical evil", as the workers call it, when it is not fatal, causes atrocious mutilation.
The necrotic jaws of those afflicted with it break off in blackish fragments amid abscesses and horrible sores.
In 1898, the French engineers Henri Sévène and Emile-David Cahen, demonstrated that phosphorus sesquisulfide (chemical composition invented 35 years earlier) is not toxic and very useful for the manufacture of matches in large quantities.
They patent their process and create a machine that makes it possible to manufacture it in a vacuum.
WE MEET ... students who have the sacred fire
Agathe Petit, final year student at INP, specializing in the restoration of fire arts./LP/Valentin Cebron
When entering the fire arts section (glass, metal, porcelain) Camille already loved porcelain.
During her training, she discovered glass, which she endeavored to fill in the gaps.
"This job is a compromise between manual work, craftsmanship and science, you learn the material, how it evolves, the way it ages", appreciates Félix, his neighbor at the table.
Anaïs, in graphic arts, would like to specialize in the restoration of Chinese painting on paper or silk.
“I like precision, I feel very close to works of art and in a mission to safeguard heritage.
Emma, in painting, finds it "stimulating" to follow the restoration of a painting from start to finish.
“We do not work in the same way on a work that will join the archives or integrate an exhibition.
We know how long a painting can be exposed, with what brightness.
It is complex and fascinating.
"
Consolidate the canvases, their spine, then flatten those which are curled.
Agathe, in 5th and final year of fire arts (glass, ceramics and metal) developed the manufacture of a resin plate without the addition of solvent, a toxic product which evaporates quickly and does not allow to create large display plates.
By crushing and melting resin grains, Agathe succeeded in making a plate large enough to accommodate the skin of her cuttlefish to be restored.
"All the restorers are delighted to attend the defense of the students' work, they also learn from them ..." welcomes Martine Bailly, head of the fire arts workshop.
INP,
124 rue Henri-Barbusse, in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis).
Open Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Meeting with students and teachers, discovery of the profession, the admission exam, presentation of restored works.
Mask compulsory from 11 years old.
inp.fr