FESTIV’ART 2004 – Jean-Claude Saudoyez

Jean-Claude Saudoyez battles with matter. Metal, in particular, is tested and tried to the limit. It’s cut into pieces, hammered upon, pierced, reassembled, braided, welded, screwed together and engraved. Jean-Claude Saudoyez conceives and realises sculptures.
From 1995 till 2000, he has created an oeuvre of torso’s, bodies and busts which are bound together by the theme of the body and its first envelopment : clothes.
The most diverse matter was hereby explored : wood, rubber, lead, iron, steel, zinc, copper, leather… To this, balls of glass, mirrors and other recycled material was added.
The warrior borders on the sadomasochistic. This Adonis seems to doubt between the torso of Atlantis and the chest of Gaïa.
From this period also date the big steel dresses, as if frozen in an interrupted dance, or helmets, that hide, under a skin of rusted steel, a smooth gold leaf covered surface.
These pieces seem to have emerged from some future excavation.