Bernard Pagès

Since the late 1960s, Bernard Pagès has been developing a unique body of sculptural work whose power is less the result of its monumentality than of a deep understanding of materials and the actions that put them in tension. By no means dogmatic, his sculpture is the result of a direct, physical relationship with his materials, in an exploration of the forces that move within them, in an ongoing dialogue with gravity, verticality and equilibrium.

What immediately distinguishes his work is the refusal of all emphasis: his works do not assert themselves, they hold back. Even his large-format pieces retain a sort of vulnerability, as if their elevation was never their own doing, as if each sculpture had to negotiate the possibility of standing upright, millimetre by millimetre.

Iron, wood, string, stone, plaster and concrete are all employed in their raw states, without dissimulation, without surface effects. Pagès treats them like living bodies, with their own densities, breaking points and possible impulses.

The works presented at the Domain of Chaumont-sur-Loire are part of this cycle. They combine a long cone of carved wood with a base made of a variety of materials. The wood bears visible traces of its shaping, rising with a sort of hesitant determination. On the ground, the worked material provides a bleak, almost vegetable counterpoint that holds back, supports and impedes the column’s ascension. The ensemble forms a figure of unstable equilibrium whose vertical thrust is maintained by a complex anchoring in which the wood’s relative lightness is confronted with the heaviness of the base. Everything rests on the rightness of relationships, the agreement between two opposing energies. Belonging to the Pals series, the works stand upright just like anyone else trying to keep on their feet in the world: by successive adjustments, vigilance and arrangements with whatever might knock you over.