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Isabelle Azaïs

Woman
FR | EN |
Brussels
Categorie A

Business and activity:

I’m a trained plastic artist, specialised in contemporary jewellery. I’ve participated at numerous exhibitions and trade fairs in Europe. Since ending the Fine Arts, I’ve always organised collective exhibitions. 11 years ago, I started the asbl “LA VITRINE” to promote the arts and the applied arts in the sectors of fashion and design. I find my balance between moments of solitary creativity and the energy that I draw from collective work. For me, one doesn’t go without the other.

What can you bring to the Smart project? Which are the skills and experiences that you intend to provide to the Board?

I have the experience of the artist as well as the experience of the manager and of the occasional client. I enjoy listening to people, synthesizing their ideas and looking for their universal sides. I find my balance between moments of solitary creativity and the energy that I draw from collective work. For me, one doesn’t go without the other. I like constructive debates, theoretical research, but nothing can replace action, the fact that one assumes his choices, and finding solutions to put into practice. That’s the idea I have of being a Smart ambassador and for which I wish to continuously complete my competences by being part of the Board of administration.

Which are your reasons to apply as a member of the board of directors of the Smart cooperative?

Smart’s evolution. I like to participate in the search of new ways of functioning to which I can bring my experience and utopias. Since years, I provide answers to questions of young professionals who ask me about my work status and I talk with my colleagues from MAD or the WCC. I’m an improvised Smart ambassador and I think that the time has come to professionalise this mandate.
Also, I’ve sometimes voiced my discontent regarding the male dominance on the stage of conferences. Complaining is not enough: because women are needed to ensure a fair representation, I hereby submit my application.

How do you see Smart in the future? What is your vision of the Smart project?

I dream of a beautiful growth for Smart, with the right mix of administrative discipline and creative flexibility in its structural form, without forgetting an ounce of activism, which has been there since its beginnings and shouldn’t disappear. To me, becoming a cooperative seems to be a significant step in this evolution. When speaking of the autonomous worker, flexibility, digitalisation, the cooperative and its humane functioning are, according to me, a gathering tool in the search for new forms of social dialogue for autonomous workers.