Lacquer is both the passion and the area of expertise of Eric Stocker, and it brought him to the end of the world. Trained at the age of 16 by the master lacquerer Pierre Bobot, he began his career working on objects from the Guimet Museum in Paris and national monuments. In 1996, the European Union asked him to set up lacquer industry in Cambodia, from where it had totally disappeared, notably because of the war. Eric Stocker does not know the country: "Before, I had never flown. I was scared, I even asked if I could go by boat. It made people laugh, I was told it would take three months, so ... "
Once there, the challenge is daunting:
I had to find the lacquer trees, the resin trees, the people who knew how to bleed them, go up the whole chain. At first, large parts of the country were still in the hands of the Khmer Rouge, and only some areas had been cleared. I scoured the countryside looking for lacquer trees and wondering what was going to happen. Little by little, I found them and we had hairspray. Then, the winnowers went back to making things to paint, while they had stopped. I took 12 apprentices in all.
After ten years, the project launched by the EU was finished, and my brother Thierry and I set up a company to continue the work on lacquer. I decided to stay in Cambodia and I became the business manager of this company. In all, I trained 350 young people. "
The adventure has something extraordinary, because lacquer is native to Asia and the techniques were practiced in Cambodia nine thousand years ago. A French heir to ancestral and Asian know-how has been able to teach locals this craft, which is part of their heritage. A few years ago, Eric Stocker opened his own workshop in Siem Reap. He employs many women who previously worked in a dump, and half of his staff are hard of hearing. Its goal is both simple and ambitious: to give young people confidence in themselves and in the future, by guaranteeing them social rights and by lifting them out of precariousness.
The Prix Culture / Art de vivre of the Trophies of the French abroad, awarded by Lepetitjournal.com in partnership with Courrier Expat, rewards all this work, accomplished during more than twenty years with Thierry, the brother of Eric, died at the end of 2018.
Today, Eric Stocker has two main goals. The first: to obtain from Norodom Sihamoni, the king of Cambodia, the opening of a botanical conservatory to protect lacquer trees and so that the country, prey to deforestation, no longer lose its heritage. "It would be too silly," says the master lacquerer, "that after two decades I have to go and get hairspray in Myanmar (Burma) because there are none in Cambodia!" locally recognized qualifications, CAP and a title of best worker, to shine this know-how. It's a safe bet that we will still hear about Eric Stocker.
By Ingrid Therwath on the Courrier International