Henri-Georges Vidal

Writtle College, Essex, April 2005

Vidal - image 1
Vidal - image 2
Vidal - image 3

My work was not about simply constructing a monumental work or of attempting to create a “masterpiece”. The principal aim was to collaborate as closely as possible with the students, to stimulate them by our meeting and through my work. My intention was to create “an object of presence” which permitted those who so desired to leave a mark. I therefore invited participants to imprint in clay their “identity”, for example a hand-print, a foot-print etc. or to mould an imaginary self-portrait.

In order to do this we used clay that was extracted on-site and which then I and the students prepared, modelled and fired. A vertical element of carved wood crowned by a lantern stands over these “self-portraits” of clay, its shape bringing to mind the lantern that dominates the roof of the administrative building at Writtle College. A solar-powered light was placed in the lantern, which when lit at night allows the presence of the sculpture to remain visible in the darkness of its surroundings.

Henri-Georges Vidal
April 2005

Previous Work

Henri-Georges Vidal
Fontaine solaire

“Fragment 201: fontaine solaire”, 2004
rubber, bricks, resin and solar material
550x350x90 cm, Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris

Fragment 190

“Fragment 190”, 2003
wood, 95x230x90 cm, Abbaye de Jumièges

Henri-Georges Vidal Born at Chatou, near Paris, in 1951. Lives and works in Picardie. E-mail imotep.paris@wanadoo.fr Personal exhibitions (selection) Musée Bourdelle Centre Culturel Français., Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Galerie Askéo, Paris Maison de la Culture Issy les Moulineaux, Île de France Galerie de la Dodane Amiens, Picardie Maison de la Culture, Amiens, Picardie Musée de l’Abbaye de Saint Riquier, Picardie Médiathèque François Mitterrand, Villers-Côtterets, Picardie Galerie MR Paris Galerie Reinfeld, Brême, Allemagne 2000 et 2004 Centre d’Art Boris Vian, Montluçon 2004 École des Beaux-Arts, Boulogne-sur-Mer 2005 Writtle College, Essex Musée Bourdelle CCF, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Galerie Askéo, Paris Maison de la Culture, Issy les Moulineaux, Île de France Galerie de la Dodane, Amiens, Picardie Maison de la Culture, Amiens, Picardie Musée de l’Abbaye de Saint Riquier, Picardie Médiathèque François Mitterrand, Villers-Côtterets, Picardie Galerie MR, Paris Galerie Reinfeld, Brême, Germany 2000 / 2004 Centre d’Arts Boris Vian, Montluçon Art Sénat, Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris Festival Franco-Brittanique, Abbeville École des Beaux Arts de Boulogne sur Mer Monumental works Centre d’Art du Crestet,Vaucluse Place St. Michel, St. Jean, Paris FRAC Île de France, Paris Place des Belles Saisons, Ville des Lilas, Île de France Collège Agricole de Metz, Moselle Établissements Bétiol, Brasilia, Brazil Education, awards and residencies
1998-2002
Work residency with traditional lobi sculptors in Burkina Faso and Ghana
1989
Prix Bourdelle
1981
Diplôme de sculpture ENSBA
1978-1979
Study trip to India: encounter with the religious sculptors of Mahabalipuram (Tamilnadu)
1976-1981
École Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris (ENSBA), Isabelle Walberg workshop