Photo: Patrick Rimond
Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty is a French artist with Madagascan origins, born in 1993. He is a sculptor, performer, and writer, and also practices egg tempera painting. He graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris and is also a graduate of Montpellier’s School of Fine Arts, where he worked for the stage director and writer Rodrigo Garcia.
In his practice, he explores issues related to disappearance, memory, identity, water and its spirituality, the living, remains, shamanism, cryptography, and the transformation of matter by social and climatic disruption. His sculptures are, for him, psychical and memorial anchors; in water and rivers, he finds the ability to bring to the surface hidden memories and signs, buried voices and water spirits.
His work has been exhibited in various group shows in France and internationally, at La Monnaie de Paris, 6018|North in Chicago, CAC Brétigny (France), FRAC Paris-Château de Rentilly, The Saint Paul de Vence International Biennial, University of Montpellier.
Winner of the SARR prize 2021, he became a resident at the Villa Albertine in Chicago. He received in 2022 the award special mention from the Jury des Amis des Beaux-Arts de Paris.
In 2023, he was part of a research program on social and inclusive artistic practices with the Centre d’art Pompidou (Paris),HKW Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), CCCB Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (Spain). In 2023, he was invited as a resident at the Villa Dufraine by the curator Lou-Justin Tailhades, an 8-month residency of the Académie des Beaux-Arts-Institut de France directed by the artist Jean-Michel Othoniel.
Artist's Instagram.
1.-2. Bonsoir Mémoire, exhibition view, La Monnaie de Paris, France, 2023 (photo: Agathe Bourée); 3. Iceberg process 3, exhibition view, Beaux-arts de paris, 2022 (photo: Sacha Boccara); 4. R-3L, concrete, Seine water, 3D PLA filament, chandelier, leds, polystyrene beads, algae, plastic, polystyrene packaging, cardboard, soil, 2022 (Photo: Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty); 5 : D-3B and R-2L. 2023, D-3B painting on polycarbonate alveolar, acrylic paint, egg tempera, cement, caput mortuum, steel, mixed materials, soot, aluminum panel, 100 x 400 x 5 cm, 2023; R-2L, concrete, steel, chandelier fragment, egg tempera, 20 x 200 x 20 cm, 2023 )Photo: Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty); 6. R-3D and R-3E. R-3D, concrete, cement, soil, steel, printed cardboard, leds, plastic, polystyrene, chandelier, mixed materials, 2022. R-3E, concrete, cement, soil, steel, printed cardboard, plastic, polystyrene, printed circuit-board, chandelier, mixed materials, 2022 (Photo: Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty); 7. D-2C, détail of the drawing, Nepalese paper, photo, turmeric, water from the Seine, mixed materials, 25 x 18,5 in, 2022 (Photo: Sacha Boccara); 8. Bonsoir Mémoire, exhibition view, La Monnaie de Paris, France. 2023 (Photo: Agathe Bourée); 9. D-3B, Asarakusui, cement, turmeric, pigment, lapis-lazuli, 118 x 78 cm, 2023 (Photo: Pierre- Alexandre Savriacouty); 10. R-2F, cement, plastic, earth, lobster claw, copper, chandeliers, 2020 (Photo: Pierre- Alexandre Savriacouty); 11. Iceberg process 3, performance view within the exhibition, Beaux-arts de paris, 2022; Lecture of undercommons, Fred Moten et Stefano Harney, 2016 (Photo: Pierre- Alexandre Savriacouty); 12. R-2P, cement, plastic, steel, chain, chandeliers, 2019 (Photo: Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty); 13. D-2C, cement, dragonfly wings, Nepalese paper, copper, tracing paper, black stone pencil, 28.3 x 22.4 in., 2022 (Photo: Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty); 14. D-3L, paint on polycarbonate alveolar, Lapis Lazuli, plastic, caput mortum, soot, acrylic paint. 200x100cm, 2023 (Photo: Pierre-Alexandre Savriacouty); 15. Performance Mon corps, Le dernier/ My body, the last, la Monnaie de Paris, 2023 (Photo: Pierre- Alexandre Savriacouty)
Artist statement
In my practice, I explore issues related to disappearance, memory, identity, water and its spirituality, remains, shamanism, cryptography, and the transformation of matter by social and climatic disruption. I explore the resurgence of ancestral and spiritual practices in a decaying world. My performances act as a form of repair, reconnecting the body with water, stars, plants, and immemorial time, as well as exploring pain and freedom. The hidden dimension of the depths of water fascinates me and leads me to explore invisible and ancient worlds in an attempt to communicate with and through them. In water and rivers, I find the ability to bring to the surface hidden memories and signs, buried voices and water spirits.
In 2003, the summer of the French heat wave, a river dried up. As the water level dropped considerably, I was suddenly able to see a multitude of wastes that had previously been hidden beneath the water: washing machine drums, boots, all kinds of garbage stuck in the mud. An anthropocene landscape was revealed. Being marked by this event, in 2017 I began using cement to sink materials that are supposed to rise to the surface, such as polystyrene, plastic or objects, with a particular interest in objects and materials rejected into nature by the society. Here, these elements are trapped in the cement's hold and thus forced to remain at the bottom of the water. Through this sculptural process, I continue to produce pieces that have become psychic and memorial anchors for me. Chandeliers are recurrent in my work. For me, they are witness objects, with strong emotional charge, they sometimes traverse several generations. Agglomerating chandeliers in my anchors is a way of communicating with the aquatic depths, spaces normally deprived of light, and of sending light into the depths in a poetic way bringing to light our deepest and most unconscious memories.
This territory of research leads me to work on the alteration of matter by climate change, the process of petrification and disappearance, the preservation of memories, the evolution of sedimentation, and the duality between the revealed and the occult. My paintings are always inspired by ancient texts and writings of humanity, which are for me major universal pictorial references. Ancient drawings inspire me deeply, leading me back to immemorial times when humans had a different relationship with nature, plants, the stars and the soul. Through this work, i try to embody a disproportionate cartography that opposes the classical organization of territorial control and thought, and deploys a different representation of the world, a poetic and perpetual deconstruction of the past.