Macabre sculptures Olivier de Sagazan. Born 1959. (FR)
For more than 20 years, Olivier de Sagazan has developed a hybrid practice that integrates painting, photography, sculpture, and performance. In his existential performative series Transfiguration, which he began in 2001, de Sagazan builds layers of clay and paint onto his own face and body to transform, disfigure and take apart his own figure, revealing an animalistic human who is seeking to break away from the physical world. At once disquieting and deeply moving, this new body of work collapses the boundaries between the physical, intellectual, spiritual and animalistic senses. The artist states: “I am interested in seeing to what degree people think its normal, or even trite, to be alive.” Olivier de Sagazan has exhibited widely in France and Europe,Canada, Brésil Corée in art galleries, museums, and film festivals. With an almost cult following online, and rave reviews about his expressive and inimitable style, it is no wonder de Sagazan’s remarkable “body art” work is featured in the non-verbal film Samsara, the Sequel to Baraka, directed by Ron Fricke.
