Vortex
by
Paul Estier
Curator: Jorge Canete
January 2023
We pass our life in front of a door without seeing that it is already open and that what is behind is already there, before our eyes.
Christian Bobin
PAUL ESTIER
Paul Estier is a self-taught Swiss sculptor born in France in 1980, and passionate about steel since childhood. He studied agriculture, horticulture, horse breeding, masonry, machinery and ironwork in Haute Savoie.
In 1999, he moved to Switzerland where his paternal family lives.
In 2000, he trained in metal construction and scaffolding at La Licorne, Yverdon.
From 2001 to 2002, he worked for Étienne Krähenbühl, for a professional internship as a sculptor.
From 2003 until 2005, he worked in a company as a metal builder. 2005 marked a turning point in his life as an artist, as he set up his sculpture studio at the Leclanché factories in Yverdon-les-Bains, and thus gained his independence (until then, he practiced his art of sculpture in the workshops where he worked, one day a week or in the evening). From then on, he devoted himself full-time to sculpture, putting aside his practice of drawing and painting.
In 2008, he moved his workshop and built a forge, in nature in Fiez where he currently practices. In parallel with his artistic activity as a sculptor, he practices ironwork and metal construction and carries out numerous projects for individuals or communities.
In 2016, he equipped his workshop with a glass furnace, after discovering and being passionate about working with glass, and with the aim of marrying this material with steel. That year, he was selected for the EMOI Cultural Prize, represented by the authorities of the Nord Vaudois Region, and won the CEPY Foundation Prize.
In 2018, he set up a place near his sculpture studio to be able to practice painting again, work which he presented during a personal exhibition in 2019.
A multi-faceted artist, his artistic practice is constantly evolving through his curiosity and his explorations.
Note of intent from the artist:
Enter another dimension, through a vortex. A dilated space-time where his glass and metal sculptures are artifacts found in an archeology of the future.
We don't really know if his works come from an advanced civilization left on earth to remind us that the other side of the mirror may be inhabited...
