From August 1 to 14 at the Maison des Quais on the Île d’Yeu
The sculptures of Marine de Soos, grace in its raw state

She regularly returns to spend her holidays on the Île d’Yeu. But from August 1 to 14, the Parisian Marine de Soos, a professional sculptor, will also be exhibiting her bronzes there for the first time. Don’t miss this beautiful encounter at the Maison des Quais.

Elegant. Refined. Fragile and strong at the same time. Balanced. The creatures shaped by Marine de Soos are in her image. A professional sculptor for twenty years (1), based in Paris where she has set up her studio, Marine de Soos will be exhibiting for the first time in Vendée, from August 1 to 14, on the Île d’Yeu. An island that won her over with its “spontaneity of life” and where she enjoys returning regularly to spend family holidays. The Île d’Yeu is “a return to one’s roots, to the force of the elements.” There, she sets aside her buckets of clay in order “to be in contemplation, to admire the sea when it rages.” She reconnects with something of “that relationship between humans and the forces of nature” that she experienced as a child when she lived on the African continent. “I recharge,” she says, and it is from there that she then draws the energy she needs when she returns to working the clay, alone in her Paris studio.

A moment of grace
For her first exhibition on the island, she selected around twenty medium-sized pieces related to water: a man carrying fish, Burmese fishermen on stilts, children playing with a kite… Always in motion, reaching “almost a breaking point,” like “a moment of grace captured by a photographer’s eye.” Where “there is lightness, but it is an unconscious quest,” one that can only be expressed through bronze, which she learned to work with, notably alongside the sculptor Jonathan Hirschfeld. “It is very fine work, which makes it possible to create assemblages with pieces cast in jewelry-making, something that would be impossible with terracotta or resin.”

“Sharing an emotion with the public”
Marine de Soos works the clay on armatures, then uses molds and wax. Contrary to what the public sometimes imagines, “bronze is not hammered; it is poured in molten form into a mold. With each piece, it’s a new adventure. It’s not easy, but bronze allows me to explore creative fields that would otherwise be inaccessible to me.” And at the same time, “bronze is something very sensual. It reflects light in a particular way. Sometimes, the patina gives it more earthy tones.”

Whether she works from photographs or memories, she seeks to “transcribe the beauty of life. Something moves me and inspires me in my creation. I am only a medium.”

Each time, it is “an emotion that one feels and shares with the public.” A public she will meet on the Île d’Yeu, as she will be present throughout the duration of the exhibition, in the same spirit as her Paris studio, where she has grown accustomed to organizing open days. Even if, at those moments, “one feels vulnerable as an artist. We are very modest about our work, but sharing our emotions also nourishes us.”

A first encounter on Vendée soil that may lead to others for this artist who, twenty years ago, left business school after feeling the contact of clay between her fingers: it was “a revelation.”

Magali Dupont

Useful information — From August 1 to 14, at the Maison des Quais, 11 rue des Quais, Port-Joinville. Open daily from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

(1): Marine de Soos has exhibited as part of the SACEM’s 25 Years of Contemporary Art Collection, at the French Embassy in New Delhi, India, and in galleries in Paris, Toulouse, and Lille. Sculptures have been acquired by the SACEM contemporary art collection and by L’Oréal. She also exhibits permanently in galleries in Paris and London.