Two people, their heads encased in thick layers of clay. Living sculptures, hybrid beings, buried in one another, fused together. They pierce each other, smear and blur the layers (and histories) of their faces; identity arises only in relation to the other. An expressive play on deformation, with absurd, erotic and horror elements, becomes an instinctive experience of the body and material: a ritual between dance and trance, painting and sculpture.

Olivier de Sagazan was born in 1959 in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, and lives and works in Saint-Nazaire, France. Originally he trained as a painter and sculptor, but now works more and more in the areas of performance, dance and theatre. For more than 20 years Olivier de Sagazan has been developing a hybrid practice that integrates painting, photography, sculpture and performance. His works are disturbing, deeply moving, and transcend the boundaries between physical, intellectual, spiritual and animalistic senses. He himself says about his work: “My whole purpose is to reveal the strangeness of being in the world.”