SAINT-BON-COURCHEVEL
28/2/09

Marine de Soos, bronze sculptor

A superb exhibition of bronzes has just opened in the salons of the Hôtel Chabichou in Courchevel 1850. To see these sculptures, one must be attentive, navigating through the maze of salons on two levels of the hotel, as the works blend so seamlessly into the rustic wood of the décor.

Born in Paris in 1967, Marine de Soos spent part of her childhood on the African continent, whose tranquility and strength can be found throughout her work; she also draws inspiration from the Orient. “In search of a lost world and a certain ideal,” she explains. An atypical artist, she came to sculpture by chance, having successively studied chemistry, then business, and worked in marketing. It was in 2001 that she turned toward sculpture, notably alongside Jonathan Hirschfeld. Her background did not prepare her for this type of art: married to an architect, she had the opportunity to make a mold for a sculpture—this was the trigger for her vocation. She is the mother of three children and lives in Paris.

Her sculptural art draws from the sources of geography and history; she is inspired by men with everyday gestures from Africa and Indonesia, by women with ancestral postures and queenly bearing across the centuries. The serenity of these small fishermen or hunters—fragile, slender miniatures captured on the spot in Indonesia—of motionless Maasai herders, of this man from Cape Verde still filled with childhood, are alone worth the detour. One seeks to penetrate the mystery of Burmese women, Maasai women, healers or shamans, of the sacred cows of India, of the elephants of Africa.

Her sculptures resemble her: the tall, slender young woman perfectly masters the lost-wax bronze technique, for before discovering the work that may one day stand in your living room, she must create different types of molds and successive counter-molds. She has the finished works produced in a foundry in Auvergne, in Charbonnières.

Janine BLOCH

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Exhibition on view at the Chabichou until April 16.