When David Lynch fell in love with lithography at Idem Paris

Located in the Montparnasse district of Paris, the fine-art printing studio, Idem, is an important venue for leading international artists who bring their inspiration and creativity to the world of lithography. Work printed at Idem may be found in museums, international exhibitions and in public and private collections. The studio under the direction of a variety of owners preserved the art of lithography, producing lithographs by the likes of Matisse, Picasso, Miro, Braque, Chagall, Léger, Cocteau, and others. Today, in this large 15,000 square foot studio with the gleaming glass roof which was originally built by the printer Emile Dufrenoy in 1880, as a space to house his lithographic presses, visiting artists work collaboratively with master printers for the production of unique print editions as the tradition continues with the same 19th century flatbed machines that preserve the spirit of lithography alive. So it is no wonder that when surrealist filmmaker David Lynch David Lynch paid a visit to Idem he immediately fell in love with the artistic process and the history of the place. This is what he wrote as a preface to the film on the Idem website:

Hervé Chandès from the Fondation Cartier brought me over to Idem and introduced me to Patrice Forest. I see this incredible place, and I get the opportunity to work there. And this was like a dream! It just opened up this brand-new world of the lithography and the magic of lithography, the magic of the stones. And it was a great, great thing! This thing of lithography, this channel of lithography opened up and a bunch of ideas came flowing out and it led to about a hundred lithographs. I will say that Idem printing studio has a unique, very special mood, and it is so conducive to creating. Patrice has the greatest attitude for all the artists and he creates this space of freedom and this joy of creating. It's so beautiful! And I think the place is very important—in other words, the same stone could be moved to another place, and I think that the work that comes out would be different. It's a combination of the stone, the place, the people, this mood, and out comes these certain ideas.

Now you can go and have as much cherry pie as you like, because after years of hints, rumors and speculations, 25 years later after its final episode "Twin Peaks" is officially returning with nine new episodes written and produced by Mark Frost and Lynch. Oh. And one more thing — this lover of lithography will direct all nine of them in what is about to be one of the biggest rebrandings in TV history. Twin Peaks is coming to Showtime as a limited series in 2016.

By Loukas Karnis