Olivier de Sagazan - Transfiguration

(c) Didier Carluccio

Transfiguration is a story of the painter and sculptor's unfulfilled longing to breathe life into his creation. In a gesture of desperation he sculpts clay onto his head, burying himself in the material, eradicating his identity and becoming a living work of art. Yet the material blinds him and he is forced to look inward, into the very depths of himself.

In a fascinating performance Sagazan changes identities on stage – from man to animal and from animal to various hybrid creatures. He pierces, obliterates and unravels the layers on his face in a frenzied search for new essence and form. In this regard Sagazan has stated “I am flabbergasted in seeing to what degree people think itΆs normal, or even trite, to be alive.” In Transfiguration he gives new meaning to the notion of life, offering a captivating, disturbing and stirring glimpse into an alternative selfhood utterly unconstrained by inhibition.

Duration 50 mn

Performer: Olivier de Sagazan

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Artistic manager: Gaelle de Sagazan
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Olivier de Sagazan, born in the Congo and raised in France, is a biologist by training who more than two decades ago began to delve into art. In his work, Sagazan examines his body as well as the structures which come to define the individual such as the dictates of society, culture and history. Through the creative process, he forges and then peels away the layers of clay, until a wild, primordial and liberated individual is laid bare. Transfiguration was created in 1999, as a series of works dealing with the search for the shamanistic, animalistic and untamable essence of human nature.

We can find him, as well on stage as in movies like Samsara of Ron Fricke, tv series like Channel Zero of Nick Antosca. In video clips with Mylène Farmer, or FKA Twigs, on a fashion film with Nick Knight and Gareth Pugh.

With the support of the French Institute