From his first works (1990, hearts of trees), Marc Nucera has been in direct contact with natural elements. He began with a long topiary visit to the trees, working patiently, at the height of their branches, to make them evolve over years, as harmoniously as possible according to their natural configurations and their place of life. He operates in private estates in the Alpilles, Lubéron and, expanding his reputation and his circle of friends, well beyond.

Then, it is their barrel which concentrates its interest. Each one is chosen according to its diameter or length and worked in its outdoor workshop. It is first of all sculpted for simple uses, seats and tables intended to remain outside, sometimes nested in a single shape, other times aligned or stacked in the manner of Malevich's Architectones, their soft patina embellished by the elements. . In these pieces, Marc Nucera expresses a fair balance between the simplicity of the material and that of the use. Among them, the tendril bench, declined in various ways, has gone beyond its status as a functional object to settle into the landscape in terms of sculpture.

The work emancipates itself towards freer forms, inspired by their very material, a ball as branchy as a pine cone, or as slightly round as the knots in its wood suggest, sculptures as tall as the barrels of the wood allow. origin whose verticality they sublimate: twisted columns (2004), but also hollowed out, openwork, pierced, according to a work requiring ever more dexterity.

The sculpted column can become anthropomorphic, a couple is revealed in its contours, caryatids and titanides of imposing dimensions appear, powerful and feminine (2009-2012). Each one replays its natural origin in a singular way, in the sincerity of its size, the power of its form, the evidence of its inspiration.

The artist works per via de levare with multiple chainsaws and even if the gesture requires strength and determination, Marc Nucera experiences it as a sensitive act, listening to the material, which cuts, hollows out according to its meaning, respects its energy , exalts its vitality.

Marc Nucera covers some of his sculptures or certain parts of them with a “skin” or a drape obtained by fine cuts, a long process of patience and concentration. These are effects of folds, hollows which, most of the time, dialogue with the veins and curvatures of the wood, highlighting them. But they can also cut them raw, scarifications which hollow out the material, make the light play, modulate or contrast the form. Their frankness exalts the natural material of wood and affirms their sculptural desire.

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