From drawing to cardboard, then to weaving, Benoît Jorba y Campo masters all the stages

The art technician in front of a Louis XIV style carpet that spent 9 years on the Lodévois looms. A.M.

The Deputy Director of the Savonnerie in Lodève is also and above all an outstanding art technician in the field of designing and weaving carpets with his teams of heddlers from the Mobilier National.

“I weave my passion” repeats Benoît Jorba y Campo, a civil service art technician at Mobilier National and a trainer in the Savonnerie carpet creation workshop, where he has also been the deputy director for several years, alongside Jean-Marc Sauvier and then Anne Gauthier today. “I arrived in 2009, alone, at the age of 25 and I never left” adds Benoît, originally from the Paris region who started his family and found happiness in the south of France, in Lodève.

“I have a passion for beauty, for well-made things and the responsibility of transmit”

“I wanted to do something with my hands” says the man who, with his Designer Model Maker Certificate in his pocket, began to look for ways he could pursue an artistic profession while doing odd jobs. “While attending trade and craft fairs, I met my trainer at the time who asked me to visit the Mobilier National in Paris, where I discovered passionate people. I have always had a penchant for classical art and they were weaving a Louis XVI-style carpet at that time. I was amazed by the colors and patterns and I said to myself, that's what I want to do.”

After joining the Parisian training in 2003, Benoît Jorba y Campo obtained his diploma before doing a year of internship in the capital and then joining Hérault and the Lodévoise factory.

“My first rug was the Julien Gardair that came out of the workshop in 2012, the one that Brigitte and Emmanuel Macron chose to put in the ceremonial lounge of the Elysée when they arrived in 2017”. The following, taken from contemporary works by Nathalie Junod-Ponsard, one of which is also at the Elysée and the other currently visible in the exhibition Tisser l’imaginaire at the Musée de Lodève. Among the projects in progress, a large classic carpet commissioned by the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur. With there again, a long-term and particularly complex work for the one who is the head of the piece. Because if he weaves, Benoît quickly stood out by being appointed by Marie-Hélène Bersani of the Mobilier National as technical referent of the workshop thanks to his diplomas, his skills and his know-how. Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, he is the one who carries out the work upstream.

A “Saint-Ange” for the Palace of the Legion of Honor

Among the projects he follows, Benoit Jorba y Campo is the head of a classic and complex carpet, a “Saint-Ange” created from a drawing from 1802, the date of the creation of the Legion of Honor by Napoleon Bonaparte. It will furnish the palace which is the residence of the Grand Chancellor and the seat of the order since its creation. The work of 5.16 m by 4.30 m, includes 36 different colors. “The start took place on January 1, 2018. It then took a year and a half of preparation to draw and then paint the cardboard by hand, before the start of weaving and the first knotted stitch in September 2019”. Two, then three weavers have been working there since then for a planned end to the profession in 2028. “What is curious in this kind of case is that it is not necessarily the person who places the order who receives it.”

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“For the Saint-Ange for example, the order materializes in a small watercolor, about fifteen square centimeters that we go to see in Paris”. Before translating it into a format of 5 meters by 4 from a multitude of preparatory drawings, visual and mathematical tests. “I draw the entire model because it requires a single gesture, a single interpretation. Then there are two of us for the painting tables, the choice of colors, the sampling”. Finally, the organization of teamwork must be set up with the prioritization of the different technical steps before starting.

Benoît, Colline and Morgane have been working on the mat since 2019. Alain Mendez.
“Like a conductor, the piece leader has everything in his head. He is responsible for all stages of manufacturing, from order to delivery”. Like a watchmaker, the weaver also carries out precision work. “There are so many knotted stitches per cm² that everything takes us longer”. In the workshops of the Savonnerie, time is indeed suspended, but when the loom falls, the result is remarkable and the wool carpets leave for a life span of several hundred years to join the high places of the Republic.

“We learn and train every day”.

“As for the journeymanship, we learn and train every day in this trade that is both technical and human”. Where patience but above all communication are essential.“Because we work side by side with other colleagues for years on the same project, doing an artistic job where we are very whole in what we do”.

“I have a passion for beauty, for well done” sums up Benoît Jorba y Campo, also driven by the responsibility of transmitting know-how. “There are no books, everything is transmitted by practice and word of mouth. Everything I have learned comes from the elders, who held it from the elders… I am aware of having a treasure in my hands, that I have been given a gift and if I do not transmit it in turn, it will be lost.”

A space has been set up at the back of the workshop to accommodate students from the CAP Art Textile de Lodève A.M.

Training: A CAP Art Textile in Lodève

Driven by the desire to pass on knowledge, Benoît Jorba y Campo is also a trainer. And it was natural that he got involved in the new CAP École d’Art Textile Tissage created in Lodève last September. It lasts two years and leads to three additional years of training, this time in Paris to obtain the Brevet des Métiers d’Art (BMA) with the possibility of joining the Mobilier National and the civil service. The drawing classes are held at the Vallot high school and the practical part in a space set up at the back of the Savonnerie workshop. “This CAP welcomes the first four apprentices, motivated who bring great energy. And who will be joined by four others next year” . To work on the basics and the classics around drawing. “And everything that provides a complete toolkit to then follow the BMA to acquire the details and interpretation.” Recruitment for the 2nd Promo, 2025-2026, should begin at the beginning of the year.