Clémence Van Lunen

Born in 1959, Brussels, Belgium

2006 Invited by the Sevres Manufactory, France

2005 Trip to Jingdezhen, China

2004 Collaborates with tiles maker Montrieux, France

1995-1996 Invited by Shigeo Toya, she travels four times to Japan

1991-1993 Casa Velázquez scholarship, Madrid, Spain

1987-91/1993-2000 Teaches design and sculpture at the workshops of Paris Cityhall

Teaches at the Beaux-Arts School of Art and Architecture, Angers, France

1985-1992 Works regularly at the blue stone quarries of Avins-en-Condroz, Belgium

1983-1985 Ceramics apprenticeship at Salvatierra de los Barros, Spain

Studied at the École supérieure d’arts plastiques, Brussels, Belgium, and at the Beaux-Arts School of Art and Architecture, Paris. Graduated in 1984

Clémence Van Lunen is a sculptor. Her curiosity prompts her to use all sorts of materials. She is especially interested in porcelain for its plasticity and has shown this preference for some time. With Fleur, the piece that won the Grand Prix at the Vallauris Biennial in 2008, she set up and constructed volumes in space, using it in a very
unconventional manner. She treated it with force. In fact, in her hands, new opportunities for practice and expression become possible and even surprisingly obvious.

To make Fleur, Clémence Van Lunen moulded Bulgomme to create porcelain leaves that copy the material’s famous, legendary hexagonal pattern. This principle, which is recurrent in her work, enabled her to retain a certain form of delicacy once the piece had been completed and fired. This contrast between impression and physical reality created an impression of unexpectedness and even incongruity.

With Gothic, a representation of a sort of robot, part Darth Vader and part Arcimboldo figure, she has used a bold build-up technique to create a powerful, robust volume that gives the subject all its force. Here, we are in the same register, but with very a different process and outcome.

With Gothic, the techniques used appear to be more conventional. Despite everything, as with Fleur, it is a very expressive, powerful work. Its volume is spectacular and quite rare for a ceramic work. Excess and even “the outrageous”, references to the ornamental and a certain form of kitsch that are incorporated into the creative process help to give the impression of jubilation that takes hold of the person looking at it. The project’s very ambition (the size is impressive) does not mean that it lacks a certain form of poetry and humour.

Yves Peltier