PARIS.- Emmanuel Saulnier has been developing an essentially sculptural body of work, in a constant dialogue with the practice of drawing. Even though glass is his preferred material, the artist explores the potential of matter in the broadest sense. His work confronts such issues as collective memories, presence and disappearance.

A former resident of the Villa Médicis – the French Academy in Rome – Emmanuel Saulnier has taught at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, since 2002. He has carried out important public commissions, such as Rester/Résister, dedicated to the civilian victims of Nazism in Vassieux-en-Vercors, and a Homage to Jean-Jacques Rousseau for the museum of Château d’Annecy.

“Emmanuel Saulnier’s work engages the gaze and extends it towards an extremely physical relationship with the work. Through sculpture, he draws using forms and volumes. The term ‘transpear’ which he uses to evoke the approach at the heart of his work, conveys this capacity to make a form, a thought and a situation appear together. Thus, the reflective quality of the project that leads to the production of an object, by superimposing materials and situations, allows each property to exist as it is.” Katell Jaffrès

Emmanuel Saulnier (born in 1952 in Paris, where he lives) took charge of the sculpture studio at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, in 2002. His works have in particular been shown in the group exhibitions “Formes Simples” (Centre Pompidou-Metz; Mori Museum, Tokyo, 2015) and “Traces du Sacré” (Centre Pompidou, 2008). His latest solo show in Paris was organised at Le Passage de Retz (2012). Previously, his work has also been featured in solo shows at the Musée d’Orsay (“Emmanuel Saulnier / Odilon Redon”, Paris, 2007), the Atelier Brancusi, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou (“PLACE NOIRE PLACE BLANCHE “, 2004), at La Maréchalerie, École d’Architecture, Versailles (“OUVERT/COUVERT”, 2004), or else at La Verrière, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Brussels (“BOIS VOIS SOIS”, 2002). He has also responded to several large-scale public commissions, such as “Rester/Résister”, dedicated to the civilian victims of Nazism at Vassieux-en-Vercors or else “Hommage à Jean-Jacques Rousseau” for the Musée du Château d’Annecy. He was a resident at the Villa Médicis, the Academy of France in Rome, in 1986. Two monographs have been devoted to him by Les Editions du Regard: Principe Transparent by Luc Lang and Jean-Pierre Greff (1999), and Condition d’Existence by Amaury Da Cunha and Doris Von Drathen (2012).

“How can we avoid bringing in the omnipresence of tensions that cross over landscapes? What to do, when everything can fall apart violently? What to establish? Or hold onto? …” 1 Emmanuel Saulnier

Curator: Katell Jaffrès


1 Emmanuel Saulnier, interview with Marielle Tabard for his solo show at Atelier Brancusi, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou (“PLACE NOIRE PLACE BLANCHE”, 2004)