“I do not impose a message, I do not impose anything, everyone receives my sculpture in their own way. My door is always open. »
Jean-Claude Guerri
Arlesian sculptor presenting works in steel, widely recognized, among other things, for having created the Saliers memorial.
His universe takes us on a dreamlike journey, on edge, between matter and the absence of matter that he sublimates with a blowtorch. Jean-Claude Guerri brings together rawness and finesse, revealing to our eyes sensitive but no less powerful characters from here, elsewhere... or nowhere.
Guerri discovered his first contact with the form by discovering the driftwood that the Rhone throws up on its banks. The work of time and water associated with his budding imagination provided him with the material for his first exhibition. It is 1961, he is 19 years old.
Plaster and earth allow him to carry out studies specifying a project and a universe that he discovers very quickly with what will become his favorite material: iron.
Twenty years have passed during which Guerri has never stopped sculpting, while managing in his activity phases of assiduous research. For example, he experiments with synthetic materials such as resin and plastic. Despite everything, Jean-Claude Guerri remains faithful to the metal in which he produces his most striking and accomplished works (steel, bronze, brass).
It was in 1969, in Belgium, that one of his first galleries revealed the original work of this sculptor to the general public.
A professional artist, Guerri is present in numerous collections and museums in Provence, France and abroad.
He runs workshops in schools, colleges and prisons. Often, the sculptures created during these workshops are exhibited in the cities concerned, in squares or in gardens.
Several official commissions offer him the possibility of creating monumental works that can, for some, reach 7 meters in height.
Monumental sculptures
2006 Memorial of the gypsy camp, Saliers, Camargue (2.5 x 2.5 cm)
2000 Five sculptures installed in five sites in the Alpilles “Day of Peace”
1995 Church of Mas-Thibert (Arles) “Christ on the cross” (3m)
1989 "Bicentenary Celebration" (4 m)
1975 HLM office (7 m)
1974 Cahors Stadium (6.5m)
1972 Municipality of Arles (3 x 2.5m)
1970 Friborg (2.5 m)
