The artistry of Auroville Papers

“We have been pulling a thread,” says Luisa. “It started 17 years ago when we wanted to create ‘new-look’ and ‘new-feel’ paper for stationary, posters, photo albums, folders and similar products. We started using waste paper for papier maché and slowly expanded, experimenting with materials such as cotton, dried banana strands, spliced bamboo sticks, straw, jute and leaves from teak, eucalyptus, bauhinia, and kadamba trees.”

“It was a bit like an arranged marriage,” says Hervé. “In the beginning there was no love for the material or the products. In fact, we knew nothing about making paper. Slowly we discovered the techniques, and as we got into the material, the material got a hold on us. The more we were doing it, the more we started loving it, and loving it, we started experimenting. We started to play.”

“Experimenting became our hallmark,” says Luisa. “Partly this was born from necessity. With the advent of the electronic media, the stationary market started shrinking. This forced us to develop new products and discover new techniques. Now we are also making bowls, large vases, lampshades, jewellery, stools, flowers and we entered the home decoration market. We are continuously renewing the products. This is also nice for the employees, as the manufacture of identical products tends to become monotonous and dulls the spirit. None of our products is similar to any other.”

The team’s latest venture is in art. “Though we do not consider ourselves as artists per se, our artistic sensibility is on the increase,” says Hervé. Auroville benefits as more and more Auroville art is displayed at public places, including works from Auroville Papers. “In the late fifteenth century, at the height of the Italian Renaissance, the saying was that Florence had more woodcarvers than butchers, suggesting that art, even more than meat, was a necessity of life. Something like that is now happening in Auroville,” says Luisa. “Public art is found all over Auroville, with many Auroville artists donating their work for public places. It’s a beautiful development and we are happy to be part of it.”

The relationship with Auroville artists has always been close and this led spontaneously to Auroville Papers’ first interactive exhibition in 2002 called ‘Paper Folly’. It was an eye-opener for many Aurovilians and Auroville artists who, playing with paper, created a wealth of shapes and forms. A second exhibition ‘Did you say paper?’ happened ten years later in the Citadines Art Centre, two weeks after the devastation of Cyclone Thane. “We never regretted that we didn’t postpone the exhibition. Many Aurovilians were happy to come to a place made for harmony and joy,” recollects Luisa, The third exhibition happened this year at Focus Gallery in Chennai, as part of the Auroville Festival in Chennai. “One client commented ‘it’s an honest work’ and that summed it up well,” says Luisa. Of course a fourth exhibition will happen, she says, “but as we only want to exhibit new products, it may take some time. We are also thinking of being part of an Auroville presence at the third Kochi Biennale in 2016-2017.”

Auroville Papers is one of the four units run by the team. The others are Auroville Press, Auroville Press Publishers and the Seagull bookshop at the Visitors’ Centre, employing 44 people. “The profits of one unit make the experimentation in another one possible,” says Hervé. “The Seagull bookshop has been enlarged and Auroville Papers has just expanded its space in the Boutique d’Auroville at the Visitors’ Centre.” The best selling products are cotton maché jewellery and a decoration paper with more holes than paper, made from banana fibres. “We use it for making lamp shades but also the individual sheets are very popular,” says Luisa. “People use it for window decoration”.

Auroville Papers also sells its products in the metro cities of India and abroad. “We often see that people get inspired seeing and touching our products,” says Hervé. “We even lost a client, a hotel chain, as they complained that all the stationary provided by us was stolen by their guests. We regret the loss, of course, but it is kind of satisfying that people like our products so much that they pinch them!”

Training workshops are a new development. “We started giving one for the Auroville schools. Then we opened up, and held a two-day workshop for outside participants in September last year. Participants learned about the different fibres that go into the fabrication of paper, cooked and beat them and, using different leaves and flowers, made paper sheets.” The workshop was successful and now workshops are a regular part of the work of Auroville Papers.

“We often hear that our products look ‘modern’, with an Auroville cachet,” says Luisa. “Why this is so is probably because we are graced to live and work in this wonderful atmosphere of Auroville. Sure, we have our difficulties and Auroville is demanding. But here we can explore whatever we want because we do not need to run after money to live or buy luxury items. The need for artistic creation takes precedence over the need to earn money. We can work on the refining of each of our products. That’s a great joy. What’s supporting us is that inner feeling of being carried, of being guided to follow the thread.”

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