11 April
2026
Conférence
European Artistic Craft Days - Lecture with Ellen Hodakova Larsson
Reclaiming common sense through material play and history
In this lecture, Ellen Hodakova Larsson will present a dialogue between material, value, and purpose, and share her approach to upcycling not only as a technique but as a mindset. Larsson’s practice allows her to tap into craft, through history, traditions and ways of living. At the core of her work is the notion of a forgotten “common sense” — an intuitive, human understanding of resourcefulness, care and respect that has gradually been lost in systems driven by excess and disposability.
Larsson will share her creative process, from sourcing materials to transforming them, and reflect on how limitations can open up unexpected creative possibilities.
The lecture will also raise broader questions around responsibility and production today: what place is there for creation in a world saturated with mass-production goods?
A lecture monitored by Alban Adam, Head of Communications and Content at Hodakova.
De 14h00 à 15h30
Translated from English to French by a live translator
Free with reservation, reservations starting April 1
The lecture will be livestreamed on the Instagram accounts of Musée Bourdelle and HODAKOVA
Adultes • Individuels
Ellen Hodakova Larsson is a Swedish designer whose work is guided by her curiosity and intuition. She is the founder and Creative Director of the Swedish fashion brand Hodakova, through which she approaches fashion as a tool to change people mindsets, eventually the way they live by drawing on inherited ways of making and the narratives embedded in everyday objects. Her practice centers on craftsmanship, where discarded garments are carefully reworked into new forms that carry narratives of their past lives.
In an increasingly industrial world, Larsson’s practice emphasizes presence, intention, and purpose, mentally and practically. She works exclusively with what already exists (up-cycling), reworking discarded garments into new forms and matters that carry traces of their past lives. Through this process, Larsson reflects on what holds real value, questioning systems of consumption and proposing alternatives rooted in care, craftsmanship, and small-scale production.
Her approach draws on time and traditions where knowledge is passed down, and where durability, construction, and material integrity define the design. By scaling back to primary needs focusing only on essential qualities, her work raises ongoing questions: What defines a simpler life? What makes a richer one? These questions are not answered directly, but explored through her collections, where each season becomes part of a continuous investigation into living in the present.
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