Studio OG – Olivier Gobert ©
Portrait
Initiated by Paul Feller SJ, an avant-garde Jesuit priest, the Maison de l'Outil et de la Pensée Ouvrière is a place of transmission dedicated to learning. Twelve thousand tools from the 17th and 18th centuries are presented under four main themes: wood, iron, animal and mineral. A resource center, open to the public, with 35,000 old and contemporary works, is the second largest technical library in France.
"In a world where so-called 'manual' jobs do not always receive recognition within the collective unconscious, the Maison de l'Outil et de la Pensée Ouvrière stands as a vector of transmission and exchange around the richness of all these know-how."
The aim of the Maison is not to "conserve", but to use the past to understand the present and build the future. It must enable the world to discover that the craftsman cannot be reduced solely to his hand: each of his actions, each of his gestures, is the fruit of an intellectual act and a rich sensitivity. Christophe Cheutin has headed the Maison de l'Outil et de la Pensée Ouvrière since 2015.
Lauréat de la récompense Parcours du Prix Liliane Bettencourt pour l'Intelligence de la Main® 2017
