“100% artisanal, 100% from Sète!”: Christophe Esposito sees all the colors with his decorative tielles

Frustré de ne pas en voir en boutique, le Sétois a décidé de fabriquer ses propres tielles DR – DR

Christophe Esposito commercialise des tielles version magnets et porte-clés. Le Sétois, amoureux de sa ville natale, envisage d’en vendre à plus grand format, pour locaux et touristes.

"I couldn't imagine that there wasn't a souvenir bearing the effigy of the tielle." What evokes Christophe Esposito, it is not the emblematic little pies that amaze the taste buds of locals and tourists. But indeed the decorative tiels that he makes himself. Indoor games, one could say. They are made over five days from a mold, then are dried before being painted with gloss shades. A creative process " 100% artisanal, 100% Sétois, claimed by this native of the singular island.

A thoughtless love

Christophe Esposito, a former footballer, has been working in decorative arts for the past eight months. At the beginning of the summer, he sold magnets and key rings in the shape of tielles in four shops in the city. He plans to sell regular-sized tielles soon. “By the feast of Saint-Louis”, estimates the artist, still waiting for a final agreement with these businesses.

He offers two types of tielles: a “traditional” with orange paste, and others with more “flashy” colors (pink, green, yellow). Christophe Esposito draws his inspiration from pop art and local artists like Hervé Di Rosa. In small format, “orange tielles are more bought by the people of Sète, while tourists prefer those of all colors”, he notes.

“Throughout my youth, I was in my grandfather's painting studio”

Coming from an Italian family, Christophe Esposito was exposed to the art world from a young age: “Throughout my youth, I was in my maternal grandfather's painting studio. I played with all the brushes, all the colors.” And what's more, these two paternal grandparents also had stalls in the Halles de Sète.

The encounter with the tielles was inevitable. “Because of my roots, it's really the tielle that was close to my heart. For me, it's emblematic of the city.” The neo-painter does not plan a career in art, but above all intends to immortalize this gastronomic specialty. So that it may appear for life in interiors, rather than in the stomach for a moment.

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