Cristina Royet

Cristina Royet is a French visual artist and printmaker who works with mokuhanga, the traditional Japanese technique of water-based woodblock printing. She deepened her engagement with the medium through participation in the MI-LAB International Artist in Residence program, one of the most respected residency programs dedicated to mokuhanga and Japanese printmaking traditions.

In 2024, Royet participated in the MI-LAB Advanced Program E, held in Echizen, Fukui Prefecture, Japan. The Advanced Program is designed for artists who have already established a foundation in mokuhanga and seek to deepen their practice through intensive study in Japan. The Echizen location is significant -- the region has produced washi paper for over 1,500 years and remains one of Japan's most important centers for traditional papermaking. Residents at MI-LAB Echizen have the opportunity to work with locally produced papers and to visit active papermaking workshops, connecting their printing practice to the material source of one of mokuhanga's essential elements.

MI-LAB, which stands for Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory, was founded to bridge traditional Japanese printmaking techniques with contemporary artistic practice. The program brings international artists to Japan for immersive residencies where they work alongside experienced mokuhanga practitioners, learning not only technical skills but the cultural context in which the technique developed. The Advanced Program assumes familiarity with basic mokuhanga methods and focuses on expanding artists' technical range and conceptual engagement with the medium.

Royet's participation in MI-LAB places her within a network of alumni who have gone on to become significant figures in the international mokuhanga community. The program's alumni include artists from dozens of countries who have carried their MI-LAB experience back to their home communities, establishing workshops, teaching programs, and exhibition opportunities that extend mokuhanga's reach.

France has a growing mokuhanga community, supported by artists who have trained in Japan and returned to establish teaching practices, as well as by the broader French tradition of estampe -- fine art printmaking -- which provides an appreciative audience and institutional context for the medium. French printmaking culture, with its emphasis on quality craftsmanship and aesthetic refinement, provides a natural home for mokuhanga, which shares these values while offering technical possibilities distinct from the lithographic and intaglio traditions that have historically dominated French printmaking.

Royet's MI-LAB residency represents a significant investment in her mokuhanga practice and positions her as a contributor to the continued development of the technique in France. The experience of working in Echizen, surrounded by the living traditions of washi papermaking and immersed in the cultural context of Japanese printmaking, provides a depth of understanding that cannot be replicated through workshops or self-study alone.