Family
In the heart of Arles stands a 17th-century house, with its multiple floors, nooks, and terraces.
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Catherine Servel, Matthew Mitchell and Olympia, 7 years old
It’s a perfect winter’s day. Dry with blue skies and southern France’s warm rays hitting central Arles’ narrow streets at just the right angle. This is where Catherine Servel, her partner Matthew Mitchell and their daughter Olympia have made their home. A radical change of life after over a decade in New York. In this old, patiently restored house, Catherine’s works – photographs, sculptures, furniture, jewellery – stand side by side with the trio’s finds and Olympia’s ceramics. Here, all floors are used with its occupants happily climbing up and down the 17th-century stairs in this tall building. The Socialite Family is having to match their pace. Interview.
Location
Arles
Author
Elsa Cau
Photographer
Constance Gennari
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TSF
Please introduce yourselves, Catherine and Matthew.
Matthew
I’m American and was born in Colorado. And I’m French by adoption and marriage. Our daughter Olympia is also a dual citizen. What else can I say? I love art but I’m not an artist myself. I like to support the artists who interest and inspire me, and help them carry out a project as a whole. That’s how I met Catherine. I was living in London sixteen years ago, when I was introduced to an artist, who said: “You’re going to love her, she’s incredible, she’s going to be very important. Her name is Catherine Serval.” For several years, I represented various artists, mainly art and fashion photographers. And then, after a while, Catherine needed a full-time agent and support. She had a lot of work to do, and all the projects had to be carried out.
Catherine
I’m a photographer. My life was completely absorbed by my work until I had our daughter. The funny thing is that my mind opened up to a lot of other things at the same time. It also pushed me to express myself in an even more personal way. And challenged me to continue working, while being a mother.
TSF
Catherine, as an artist, how did you do things afresh after motherhood?
Catherine
I varied the media I used, exploring new things, and developing this novel idea of making jewellery, plus sculpting, as well as looking for subjects in photography other than what I was commissioned for… I stopped doing what was asked of me, in fact.
TSF
Tell us more about this jewellery brand.
Matthew
De Cosmi is a brand, but the pieces are unique.
Catherine
They really are artistic gems. The name goes back several generations in my family. But I didn’t want to feel an immediate connection. I also wanted to separate my practices. Ultimately, all the elements constantly feed off each other. In fact, I can’t really imagine being confined to a single medium any more. It’s a bit like having to go straight down the road all the time. And then I wanted to make jewellery where you can feel the human hand has been involved. With that tactile sensation. As well as the precious “one-off” aspect. You don’t want everyone wearing the same thing as you… These pieces will be passed on like little treasures to our children.
Matthew
Little sculptures. When you see a ceramic piece you like, you go and touch it. It’s the same thing here.
TSF
Do you still work together?
Matthew
Yes. All the time!
Catherine
We communicate constantly. We share everything.
TSF
You have to be pretty intermeshed to live together, bring up a child together and work together.
Matthew
Exactly. For some people it wouldn’t work. But for us, it worked right from the start. It happened immediately.
Catherine
You could say we’re intermeshed, but we have fundamentally different personalities. In other words, we have complementary qualities. We don’t step on each other. At home, we have our own roles, naturally.
Matthew
That’s not to say that there’s never any conflict, because that’s also the reality of doing creative work together.
Catherine
In any case, when we disagree, it means that what we’re doing isn’t working, that we’re missing that special something. So we have to keep looking. And when we agree, it’s because it’s good.
Matthew
And then you have to know how to encourage yourself and the other person, and let the other, the artist, try things out and pursue their ideas too.
TSF
I noticed you were very encouraging with your daughter Olympia.
Catherine
I think, because she sees how we work, Olympia expects us to have a real discussion when she shows me something she’s made or drawn, for example. We try to instil in her that, when you have an idea, you have to follow through with it. Put the necessary energy into it to see it to the end.
Matthew
And there’s never any failure, of course. Just learning!
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My life was completely absorbed by my work until I had our daughter. The funny thing is that my mind opened up to a lot of other things at the same time.
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TSF
How has your upbringing, or the people around you, influenced your individual tastes?
Catherine
Growing up in a hotel had a big influence on my personality. It was in Brittany, by the sea. I love the ocean. Growing up in a hotel means never being alone with your family and living with staff and guests. Which has its advantages: there’s always plenty of life and excitement, and constant attention to detail inside, where everything has to be perfect. As a child, I loved sneaking into the kitchens to taste the latest cake from the pastry chef… The fishermen would come to the back of the hotel to deposit the day’s catch. I saw a lot of day-to-day life there: it’s like a mini version of society and you experience some wonderful moments. But it’s true that I did wish we had our own house, with no-one but my family there. This experience definitely influenced my personality and tastes in any case. What I want in my life and my work.
TSF
What did the hotel look like, Catherine?
Catherine
It was my grandparents’ hotel. So it was old and then given a more modern makeover. However, it remained a bit traditional: there was a bar with a jukebox, snooker…
Matthew
As for me, my mother had a big influence on my tastes. And probably also my way of being! She was an artist and interior designer. Before that, she studied art, or rather fine art. When I was a child, she used to take me from building site to building site. I too took in a lot on these occasions: her choices, the materials, the colours, the discussions with customers to achieve a certain atmosphere, the workers at work. So, from an early age I had a very strong opinion about everything around me, even if I wasn’t specifically asked for my thoughts. It’s the same with our daughter Olympia. In fact, I believe personality is there from birth, and we develop as we go along.
Catherine
Of course, the environment you live in means certain directions can develop. A bit like Olympia’s lifelong desire to make ceramics. She started visiting a neighbour who was a ceramicist. One day, the ceramicist told me she was starting to give classes. It was as simple as that. Olympia also loves music, singing, painting… We never impose anything on her: it’s her own personal journey. But it can also take place in this house, where creation takes centre stage.
Matthew
Olympia is so lucky to have Catherine as her mother! Because she sees everything Catherine makes, she observes the way we work together and discuss everything. I think seeing her mother doing things is an essential part of forming the woman Olympia is becoming.
Catherine
It’s important for her to know that anything is possible. Whether you’re born a girl or a boy. She is lucky enough not to suffer from insidious comparison: she is an only child. She is free.
TSF
How did you find this house?
Catherine
We had a friend here who knew we were looking for something in the area. One day, she sent us a message explaining that her mother was selling her house in the centre of Arles. We weren’t yet aware of how difficult it is to find an old house with multiple storeys from the same period right in the centre of town! It needed a lot of work, so we hesitated.
Matthew
There were elements visible from the 17th century.
Catherine
While we were hesitating, lockdown began and we could no longer visit anything. It was as if fate had placed us here. What followed was six months of work!
TSF
Tell us what you did to the house.
Catherine
When we arrived, we frankly had no idea what we wanted to do. We looked at the house and saw that it was beautiful and old, that it had a nice structure, but we’d just come from a flat in New York with a completely different aesthetic: we lived in a Reformed church! We didn’t have any anchor points for this environment. We decided to make it our joint project, another one of those, and we rolled up our sleeves! We started to study the history of the houses in the area.
TSF
So, the starting point was to anchor ourselves in something fairly local.
Catherine
And to do it in a modest way. We wanted to serve the house.
Matthew
During this research phase, we discovered that these are splendid, spectacular houses and that almost all of them had been ruined during the 1950s, concreted over and badly modernised. Here, the tiles were shiny white. You’re standing on a 17th century floor that we’ve hunted down. The idea is to give the impression that everything is original and harmonious. You’re meant to walk through the door and think everything has always been here.
TSF
There’s that same attention to detail you were talking about, Catherine: the sockets, the handles, the switches, everything looks chosen with care.
Matthew
There’s not a detail in the whole house that hasn’t been pored over.
Catherine
It was also essential that there should be no trims anywhere. That the walls should look like they are traced with a ruler, but without division. It doesn’t have the same effect. Then we created lots of little niches in the walls.
TSF
Can you tell me about your favourite place in the house?
Catherine
It depends on the moment. For a while, we loved the room we call the grey living room (because the ceiling is grey). It’s a bit like a reading room, an office and a cinema for us.
Matthew
In front of the fireplace, downstairs, of course. Winter in this region is a dream. I spend summer on the terrace upstairs with my other babies: my plants.
Catherine
I love being in the studio, too, next to the terrace on the penultimate floor of the house.
Matthew
I think it must be your favourite space because I always find you in the studio when I’m looking for you.
Catherine
The workshop benefits from three light sources, making it a very nice place to work. And it has a window that had been filled in before our arrival. It was a surprise to discover the beautiful view when it was unblocked!
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TSF
What was the biggest challenge of the project?
Catherine
Probably the ceiling in the grey living room, with its intricately decorated beams.
Matthew
We didn’t know what we were going to find: it was covered by a false ceiling. And there were 10 tonnes of concrete on the floor of the room above, weighing down the ceiling.
Catherine
In fact, as the work progressed, another house was revealed.
Matthew
But we had to ask ourselves some practical questions. For example, the houses here have no cupboards when they are very old. We had to come up with a way of incorporating cupboards without it looking ugly, a beautiful kitchen and all the modern things you need. The entrance cupboard for coats on the ground floor took a lot of thought! You hardly notice the door in the entrance, but it’s actually hollow and very deep. Otherwise, Catherine designed a lot of our furniture. For example, the little table tucked in the living room by the fireplace, where Olympia draws. The papier-mâché floor lamps are also by Catherine. Olympia’s bed.
TSF
Does Olympia like the house? Wasn’t it difficult to adapt?
Catherine
I remember that when we got the key, and only then, we brought her to see the house. That was before the building work. Olympia started playing in the little courtyard, then admired the fireplace, then climbed to the top of the terrace: she felt good. She took the house key. She was happy. It was a really lovely moment.
TSF
Would you like to tell me about something you particularly appreciate in your home?
Catherine
We’re in our bedroom. You see a canvas and a floor lamp that are part of a larger study I’m doing on abstract forms. In a way, this is a response to, or follows on from, my series of photographs that show forms and flesh in an almost abstract way in the grey living room. It sort of develops the same idea. It’s a series I call Les Plasticines.
Matthew
It’s the idea of movement, of energy.
Catherine
I think this series will be extended into a jewellery collection.
TSF
What are you working on now?
Matthew
Catherine is putting the finishing touches to solid gold pendants for De Cosmi. This is typography; the letters and numbers are fairly “organic” in shape, robust in weight and size, and worn as pendants. They’re very tactile and yummy: you want to touch them as soon as you see them.
TSF
What are your favourite places in Arles?
Catherine & Matthew
We love lunch at La Cachette: the cod petal sandwich on challah bread is delicious and flavoured with lots of herbs. We often hunt for furniture and objects at Julie Barreau: everything is beautiful and Julie has a very sharp eye. For an artisanal ice cream Olympia loves, especially the thyme and fig flavours, we go to Arelatis near us.
TSF
What are your favourite pieces from The Socialite Family collection?
Catherine
The Berlingot Divino cushions in a very attractive shape.
Matthew
The Rotondo seat modules, with their fresh Italian stripes and shape. I think this is a strong piece that’s easy to combine with antique objects and furniture as we like to do!
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