BISSONNIER Sylvain

Originally from Paris, after a James Dean-like adolescence and several jobs, t

his son of an artist settled in Die, a small city in the south of the Vercors, bathed in the soft light of the Drôme region, buzzing with artists’ studios, that he found at the "Griotte".

 

A natural setting equal to the young dramatist of materials.

 

Nature is present in the very heart of his technique and artistic expression, whether he uses

grapes or rust as pigment, ages latex and changes raw materials for his creations.

 

A pioneer artist who initiated the rule of ecological art "where life – he says – recovers matter", most of the materials that he uses are recycled. It is a choice, a manifesto in fact. He even goes so far as to reuse doll eyes, he uses very little new products from do-it-yourself or hardware stores that do not speak of the past, therefore, nothing of the future.

His work is even more alive since he tries to make the "matter autonomous" and unique; it even participates in the creative process with iron oxidation, or by using latex so that the initial work and the final work will always be a work in progress. Natural entropy enters into his creation channeling the experience with his choices of materials.

 

In short, his pictorial and sculptural work is imbued with drama that is as natural as it is

abstract, both terribly incarnate and disembodied (spiritual) as well as supernatural.

At first a puppeteer, then actor, the body that he puts on stage goes beyond its own shape.

Sylvain Bissonnier paints out of the frame as if it were off-stage, like artistic stage direction.

Dramatic turns of events, jagged cliffs, color and sometimes an abundance of black. His

watercolors, inks, acrylics and combined techniques exceed the usual body experience by

misrepresenting the subject’s shape.

 

Although he finds freedom in graphic works, he defines himself as a sculptor. He admires

Rodin and his creative force, however, his way of exposing matter connects him more to

Giacometti.

 

Influenced by Antonin Artaud’s plays, his inspiration for the supernatural recalls William

Blake. The strange creatures that he created when he was a puppeteer, "les dérobés", speak of the importance of the gaze. A Cyclopean gaze, "without a robe", asexual, that hides everything that the spectator is used to seeing. Yet, it is an open gaze on the incredible. A window to the soul. A window to ourselves.