ART MOMENT BY LAURENCE DE CALAN

• Pousseur de lune, a bronze from the “Terre” series, expresses all the poetry of the moving figures created by Marine de Soos.
• Grand Pêcheur sur échasse, a bronze over 2 meters high, one of the four works exhibited this summer in the gardens of Villandry.
• Sculptor Marine de Soos oversees the installation in the “Jardin du Soleil” of her Grand Bajda, a bronze 2.35 meters high evoking the grace of these sea nomads who inhabit Indonesia.

Villandry — GARDEN OF HOSTS
Nature, the elements, the universal being inspire the works of sculptor Marine de Soos. Their serene poetry, like the grace of their movements, captivated the owner of the Château de Villandry, who invited four of them to beautifully celebrate the tenth anniversary of his Jardin du Soleil.

From the Africa of her childhood in Djibouti—its scents, the land she walked barefoot—she has forgotten nothing. For more than twenty years, Marine de Soos has been portraying her admiration for the beauty of the world, its poetry, its silences, and the echo of elsewhere. She came to art by chance; modeling imposed itself as an obvious path. Trained in the studio of the American sculptor Jonathan Hirschfeld in the technique of “lost-wax bronze” on metal or wooden armatures, Marine forged her own path. With eyes closed, she visualizes one of those fleeting glances captured during a scene of life, and her hands sculpt it. She has traveled widely—Ethiopia, Burma, Indonesia—and her bronze figures retain the trace of these journeys. “They imprint my gaze and my emotion so strongly that I model them in the moment, without preparatory drawing.” Their gestures, their poses, the union of anatomical accuracy and grace, the art of modeling the soul in movement, give rise to a presence so real that one forgets the molder. Then the sculpture is entrusted to the foundry, the various parts assembled—through to the very end.

Marine accompanies her work, correcting the detail of a gesture, the fold of a face. The major themes of her work are the world of childhood, the stillness of pose and axis, the harmony of movement. “What I offer you has passed through me: fraternity, love, the correspondence of cultures.”

Henri Carvallo, owner of the Château de Villandry, chose Grand Pêcheur sur échasse, Grand Bajda, and Grand Flûtiste to celebrate the ten years of the Jardin du Soleil, in harmony with the sculptures of Louis Benech. Serene, the ensemble alternates shadow and light, poetry and silence.

MARINE DE SOOS AT VILLANDRY
Until September 30. Château de Villandry, 3 rue Principale, Villandry.
Tel. 02 47 50 02 09. chateauvillandry.fr marinedesoos.com