Héloïse BARIOL (1983)
CLAUSTRA. Modular installation of 347 terracotta elements.
Dimensions in its current arrangement: height 207 cm, footprint 730 cm x 230 cm, linear length 920 cm.
Alongside her production of beautiful utilitarian painted ceramic pots and vases, Héloïse Bariol conducts research integrating sculpture, architecture, and landscape, with the Land Art movement being one of her sources of inspiration. This claustra, composed of identical terracotta modules, is her largest achievement to date.
Highly versatile with its stacked blocks, simply linked by copper wire, this work lends itself to all forms. Serving alternately as a scenographic element or a comma-shaped sculpture, during previous exhibitions in La Borne and Rouen, its length was doubled by the addition of modules to fully occupy the space of one of the former workshops at La Friche de l’Escalette. This was a response to the recessed symbol formed by the channel carved into the ground, a testament to the site’s former metallurgical activity.
The extended palette of earth tones, revealed by wood firing in a traditional Japanese Anagama kiln, ranging from orange to toasted brown, vibrates under the bright Marseilles sun and blends into the setting of stone and brick walls.
Modulating space, the claustra allows air and light to pass through while blurring the view, thus creating an atmosphere of mystery in harmony with the enigmatic ruins of La Friche de l’Escalette.
Héloïse Bariol was born in 1983 in Le Puy-en-Velay. After studying at the Beaux-Arts in Valence, she has focused her research on ceramics for about ten years. Her studio is located in Rouen.
She is among the ceramists who exhibited in the remarkable building of the Centre de Céramique Contemporaine de La Borne in 2020, presenting her claustra, which was fired in situ, as well as a museum model with minimalist scenography.
La Borne, a traditional pottery village in Berry, which has become a hub of ceramic creation since the 1950s, has preserved its authenticity and level of excellence, allowing the most talented young ceramists to produce and exhibit their creations.
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