ETIENNE VIARD: SCULPTOR DEFYING BALANCE

Initially trained as a ceramist, Etienne Viard now creates his works from a tougher, more resistant material: steel.

He pushes the tension of the metal to its limits. The shapes are then assembled into increasingly audacious compositions, as if challenging the laws of gravity. Previously relying on preparatory drawings, he envisions his sculptures from models to better understand their placement and balance in space.

"My sculpture is built on these pieces of impatience that I try to preserve as intensely as possible without freezing this initial impulse."

While the works refuse to conform to known physical laws, they are not static but are instead a perpetual evocation of imbalance. The illusion of balance is meticulously studied: "The connection comes from an invisible articulation, from a weld that I want to be discreet and that holds the whole together."

The strength of Etienne Viard's creations, which challenge our sense of observation and deny our empiricism, lies in their ability to indefinitely postpone the moment of falling.