Etnia House of Arts collaborates with Paris College of Art (PCA) through a creative workshop and residency programme that invites students from the MA in Fashion Film & Photography to explore new ways of creating from an unexpected starting point: a pair of glasses.

As part of this year-long collaboration, Luise Leber and Tóna Fritsdóttir spent one week at the Chiesa dell’Abbazia della Misericordia in Venice, using the space as a place for experimentation, exchange and creative exploration. The residency encouraged both artists to follow their ideas freely, testing materials, changing direction and allowing the process itself to shape the final work.
The result is two very different pieces, each rooted in the artists’ personal perspectives and creative languages.

La Mue — Luise Leber
Luise Leber explores transformation as an ongoing process, where what comes before is not discarded but carried forward. In La Mue, a piece of fabric is given a new life through the eyewear, taking the form of a flower suspended between growth and decay.
The work reflects on rebirth, memory and renewal, using the transformation of a discarded material as a metaphor for metamorphosis. The glasses become part of this process: a physical expression of something old being shed, preserved and transformed into something new.

The sea takes and the sea gives — Tóna Fritsdóttir
Inspired by her Faroese heritage, Tóna Fritsdóttir explores the sea as both a source of life and a force of danger. Using salmon skin alongside sculptural forms, the work reflects on fishing, sustenance and the deep relationship between the sea and Faroese identity.
The two sides of the piece express this duality through contrasting forms: one angular and sharp, echoing the mountains and the harsher character of the sea; the other rounded and soft, inspired by the movement of deep waves.

Together, the works reflect the possibilities that emerge when an everyday object becomes a starting point for experimentation, allowing new materials, ideas and perspectives to take shape.