Sans titre, technique mixte, 130 x 161 cm, 2018 © Olivier de Sagazan

OLIVIER DE SAGAZAN

Born in 1959 at Brazzaville in Congo, Olivier de Sagazan lives and works in Saint-Nazaire.

Trained as a biologist, he is interested in the living and, through his pieces, seeks to establish a sort of genealogy of the sensibility. He aims to better understand how, at some point, inert material structured by cells engenders life and sensitivity.

For about 25 years, Olivier de Sagazan’s work has principally revolved around the human body. In parallel with his creations - paintings, sculptures, installations - de Sagazan produces performances, popularly seen by the entire world, during which he utilizes his own body as a mold, with clay and paint as his mediums. Converting his face and body, he manoeuvers through choreographed gestures, alloting for radical metamorphoses.

The artist predominantly uses clay and plants that he gathers and kneads in order to create lifelike material. From these elements, a polymorphic world appears composed of different characters like a bestiary where humans intertwine with animals.

EXHIBITIONS

2018
Movie with Qiu Yang, performance, Golden Gold festival, Taipei, Taiwan.
Transfiguration, Performance, Théâtre Mac Orlan Festival La Becquée, Brest, France.
Performance, CERCO, Saragosse, Spain.
Gesture 01, performance, the Old Baths, Hackney Wick, Londres, England.
Corps-Textes (avec 5 danseurs), artist-in-residence National Scène of Saint Nazaire, Saint Nazaire, France.
Hybridation and Transfiguration, performance, masterclass, Theatre of Lazarists Monastery, International Forest Festival, Thessalonique, Greece.
11th, performance, international Puppet Festival, Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal.
Exhibition and performance, Contemporary Cluster Gallery, Roma, Italy.
Transfiguration, performance, Festival Rencontre entre les Mondes, Chabeuil, France.
2017
Exhibition paintings and sculptures, Vitoux Gallery Paris, France.
Exhibition, Musée d’art de Kauno M.Žilinsko galerijoje nuo lapkričio, Lituania.
Performance, Théâtre de Jérusalem, Jérusalem, Israël.
La imaginacion del desastre, exhibition, Buenos Aires Argentina.
Orlan et Olivier de Sagazan, BP17 Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Généalogie de la sensibilité, colloquium and performance, Lieu Unique, Nantes, France.
Êtres Chairs, exhibition, Chapelle des Franciscains, Saint Nazaire, France.
Ugly as art, exhibition, Moa, Seoul, Korea.
Exhibition, Chapelle Sainte Anne, Tours, France.
2016
Performance, Musée de la Croix Rouge, Genève, Switzerland.
Performance, International Mime Festival, Chuncheon, Korea.
Performance, théâtre Déjazet, avec la Loo&Lou Gallery, Paris, France.
Exposition galerie Loo&Lou Gallery, Paris, France.
Masterclass et performance, Central St Martin London, London, England.
SNACK, exposition, Power Station Of Art, Huangpu Qu, Shanghai.
Transfiguration, performance, Biennale d’art performatif, Rouyn-Noranda, Canada.
Transfiguration, performance, Festival Phenomena, Montréal, Canada.
Performance, Biennale, Shanghai.