Inside Israeli Artist Arik Levy’s Sculpture Park In Provence

Within the serenity of Provence, the sunshine is magical and the Mediterranean fragrances remind Israeli artist-designer, Arik Levy, of his childhood in Tel Aviv. “The sunshine right here is so uncommon and ideal,” he remarks. “I’ve more room for myself to create. Paris doesn’t have that. I couldn’t present myself a lot work on the similar time. All the things was in crates, in storage, elsewhere, and we needed to transfer half of the studio simply to maneuver one factor in or out. We couldn’t herald large items to the third flooring, or we had to make use of piano movers. It was very costly every time.” So in November 2019, he packed up and left Paris together with his spouse, fellow artist Zoé Ouvrier, and two daughters in tow to make a house for themselves within the calm of Saint-Paul-de-Vence. That they had chanced upon the property of Sylvie Guillem, a former étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet and the Royal Ballet in London, with its sprawling 12,000-sqm backyard on a slope and beneficiant, light-filled studio, on this hilltop village lengthy frequented by artists. The French Riviera is the place artwork, the solar, the ocean and the mountains converge, and for the couple, it has every part that they might ever want for. Though Levy’s material has remained unchanged since transferring, having his personal sculpture park has modified the size of his works. Making a four-meter-high sculpture in Paris was advanced when it comes to manufacturing, transportation and storage, however in distinction, the identical sculpture seems to be minuscule in his gigantic Provençal backyard.

Items are positioned by the home, close to the swimming pool, within the shade of a circle of timber or suspended from a department. Discovering the right spot to place a chunk is a problem in itself. “Once I’m making a brand new piece and I do know it’s coming, I stroll across the backyard,” explains Levy. “Generally I discover the place, generally the place finds me. When it’s clear, it’s clear. If I’ve a doubt, I don’t put it there. At completely different occasions of the day, the backyard seems to be completely different, so sculptures could be put elsewhere.” Constructed of slanted, interlocking purple picket panels, “FacetFormation” is held collectively by a key that if eliminated, the entire composition would collapse, the important thing being a vital part that holds collectively elements of 1’s life that will crumble if misplaced. “CraterStoneCell”, in keeping with Levy, “expresses the invisible areas of the crater and seems to be just like the seed of an unknown fruit or tree. It makes the attention comply with the empty areas and stroll the thriller of the unseen. It’s an intriguing formation and highly effective presence.”

The exploding “RockGrowth” seems as if the rock is sprouting, shifting from mineral to vegetal – a bodily impossibility – and thus speaks of the human potential to interrupt via perceived boundaries. “RockStoneFluid” was subjected to an air vacuum course of that fashioned heavy indentations, whereas the cage-like “RockStoneMesh” with grass seen rising inside is in whole concord with nature and speaks of the passage of time. Levy could title his works “rocks”, however they’re not meant to resemble any actual stones or boulders. “I name them by no matter form of metaphor I would like them to carry,” he notes. “I take advantage of phrases to start out an trade with individuals, so whenever you have a look at an object and perceive its identify, you are taking out of your private and collective reminiscence and your cultural identification. I work by subtraction, not addition. I take off till I discover the precise stability and concord, then I give a narrative, add feelings and social codes. What pursuits me just isn’t the completed work, it’s what it does, what ideas, emotions and experiences individuals can take with them. I’m simply an ‘inseminator’ – I plant the seed after which individuals make the seed develop. If you end up an summary sculptor, the kinds you make mirror many alternative issues and may evoke many alternative emotions. That is how individuals can evolve with the work itself.”

Like an open-air gallery, Levy’s large-scale sculptures in stainless-steel, Corten metal, bronze, marble and wooden are embraced by olive, cypress, fig, pomegranate, avocado, mandarin and apple timber, lavender, oakleaf hydrangea, agapanthus, crimson bottlebrush, a vegetable backyard, koi pond and beehives rising within the huge luxuriant backyard that was initially imagined some 25 years in the past by famend French panorama architect Jean Mus, who’s credited with designing the Côte d’Azur’s parks and gardens. For the primary time in his life, Levy is ready to reside amongst his personal works, whereas collectors are in a position to expertise his creations of their perfect atmosphere, in everlasting dialogue with ample nature, and envision how a sculpture might perform in their very own gardens, generally shopping for a chunk on the spot.

At present open to the general public, by appointment solely, the sculpture park simply matches into the buzzing summer season artwork circuit within the south of France, which takes artwork lovers from the LUMA cultural campus in Arles, Château La Coste artwork and structure vineyard close to Aix-en-Provence and MAMO Artwork Heart in Marseille to the Carmignac Basis on Porquerolles Island, the Domaine du Muy sculpture backyard and the Venet Basis in Le Muy. Now they’ve a brand new purpose to cease in Saint-Paul-de-Vence earlier than heading off to the museums in Good and the public sale homes in Monte Carlo.