Olivier Sévère
France
Olivier Sévère (1978) lives and works in Paris, graduated from Ensba in 2002 “(…) Olivier Sévère sculpts mineral matter to reveal its potential for singularity. On the threshold between the natural and the artificial, his works play on the collision between physical and imaginary processes to shake the stony world out of its supposed inertia. (…) Somewhere between documentary realism and poetic naturalism, the artist draws on all the resources of the ‘natural fantasy’ evoked by Roger Caillois to describe the mysterious writing of stones, whose biomorphic aspect magically contradicts their inanimate nature.” Florian Gaité.
Gradually, stone and water became his main subjects of reflection. In the mode of reconstitution, he gives substance to stones in a collection of crystalline fragments resembling minerals, or questions the vegetal origin of marble and the creation of mountain massifs in a landscape emerging from the floor of Lausanne cathedral. Water is often present in his work as a medium in which other bodies or materials live or evolve, and is also considered to be the primary tool for sculpting stone or landscapes, in analogy with erosion. Video has slowly crept into her practice, extending and prolonging her research by introducing images and a certain form of narrative.
His exhibitions and residencies, initially in France, are now expanding abroad. In 2015 he was in residence at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, in 2016 at Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto, and in 2019 at Villa Salammbô in Tunis. His last two solo exhibitions were at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and the Musée du Moyen-Age in Paris in 2017, followed by ‘Oasis’ in 2023 at the Centre d’Art La Maréchalerie in Versailles. A duo show has also just been held at the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace in Le Bourget, following a double residency with artist Charlotte Charbonnel. Since 2014, Olivier Sévère has been teaching a course in plastic expression at the ENSCI, focusing on issues of volume and materiality.
Look at the Water