Voyageur (2005) Sculpture by Fabien Manni

With a childhood spent among objets d'art and old pieces of furniture (parents impassioned antique dealers), the world of art was for me an obviousness, the universe in which my life should ench Popular art, particularly, enriched my sensitivity of its freedom and its prowesses.
I choose, to acquire solid knowledge in history of art, to make the School of the Louvre in order to attend the national and Parisian museums assiduously. These three years of discovery and amazement lead to the need to be confronted with new geographical horizons by the means of the market of art. While my fingers continue their self-educated training on clay, a fascination for glass, mysterious material, carries me out towards the United States and Polynesia, as a representative of artists. Splendid meetings with various artists in these regions enchant me but create a disorder in me in same time.
Of return on the South of France after three years of traveling, my family increasing, I open an antique shop in Biot. The goods which attract me always have a strong emotional capacity and "speak" about their history. But I realize rather quickly that my happiness is nourished much more of the work of the matter (wood and clay) that of my investment to defend creations of others. This disorder, born several years before, had become a pit in which I did not wish any more but to throw me. I then seized the occasion to cease my activity of merchant to exclusively devote myself to the adventure of creation.
As a self-taught sculptor, the fortuitous discovery of structural steel, sober and essential material of architecture, puts me on the rails of my creative individuality, indispensable condition of this new life. Work, experiments and encounters, guide my evolution and finally allow me to expose and sell.

The marriage of stone and iron

The materials seem to be complementary with obviousness, combining their intrinsic forces, one entirely natural and the other transformed by the action of man. I like to work with stones of rivers to the which natural erosion of this "life" passed to roll or cherished by water give a patina or a form softened by time brought. It is the life of the stone, its heart, which enters a box of my imaginary and that the work of iron will allow me to exploit. Iron is of recovery or machining, according to my needs. Mineral world and metal world, common essence and natural marriage. Like a painter carried by the color, I let myself carry by the matters and built their common life. Letting express the stone and making speak iron. Only mutual respect can generate a work. Poetry, according to me, lies in this symbiosis, fruit of a search of humility, balance and audacity. All marriages are possible if the mirror reflects the unit. Neither lie, nor excessive domination, reciprocal attention. To shine and make shine, the word together takes all its force then; The color and the matter are the gu...

• Nationality: FRANCE
• Date of birth : unknown date
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary French Artists