ELSA SAHAL: POOL DANCE
Exhibition from 1st March to 1st June 2025
“I embraced clay right away because it is a domestic, non-authoritarian material; I don’t like technical virtuosity, the seduction it exerts and the fascination for mastery, which hinders freedom. The body is inseparable from this material. As if the earth were already part of the body.”
Like Johan Creten, who exhibited in 2022 at La Piscine, or Valérie Delarue, who recently entered the museum’s collections, Elsa Sahal (born 1975), a graduate of the Paris school of fine arts, embodies the revival of ceramic sculpture. A student of Georges Jeanclos (1933-1997), she learned how to model clay while working alongside him, after which she attended the studio of the Swedish sculptor, Erik Dietman (1937-2002), who taught her that art could combine freedom of expression and humour. By choosing to devote herself to this technique, an ideal material for those who love metamorphoses, the theme of the body keeps returning to her creative journey. In this intimate and organic exploration of the anatomy of the two sexes, buttocks, legs, breasts, phallic forms are all disjointed outgrowths which combine turned elements with modelled parts demonstrating an abundance of figurative freedom. The history of 20th century sculpture has always fed into the work of Elsa Sahal. Initiated in 2015, the Pole Dance series is inspired by the lascivious and swirling poses of the lovers of this aerial discipline around a pole, as well as the study of the sketches of the sculptor, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). Between 1903 and 1912, Rodin produced a series of 14 drawings and terracotta models of the Spanish dancer and acrobat, Alda Moreno.
When showcased in the museum’s cabins, Elsa Sahal’s uninhibited sculpture echoes the Rodin / Bourdelle. Body to body exhibition to perfection.
Curator: Karine Lacquemant, curator of the applied arts collections, La Piscine – André Diligent museum of art and industry.
The scenography was completed thanks to the generous support of Tollens paint.
This exhibition is presented in the spaces dedicated to the permanent collections, with free admission on every first Sunday of the month.
Caption: Elsa Sahal (born in 1975), Justine, 2015. Glazed ceramic, 32 x 27 x 35 cm. Private collection, Paris. Photo: Denis Amon. Courtesy Galerie Papillon © ADAGP, Paris, 2024
Preview on Friday 28 February 2025 from 6pm.
