ASKOY

Untitled, 2018

2018

Pierre Jaggi was born in Geneva on February 25, 1957, where he spent his childhood and completed his secondary studies. At 18 he decided to travel the wide world. He left for Asia, for a 9-month journey that took him to India and Nepal after crossing part of Afghanistan on horseback. He takes a keen interest in indigenous ways of life and various local crafts. Subsequently, he crossed the Sahara, which he will cross again on various occasions. Driven by a thirst for adventure, he embarks on a pirogue and descends the Niger River with other companions. This experience on the borders of our civilizations will earn him the knowledge of the essential and the relative. At the age of 20 he worked on a cargo ship bound for Togo and continued his journey through West Africa. After a short stay in Switzerland, he returned to Africa for two years during which he learned to shape the earth and produced various murals. Then it is the meeting with South America, the Andean populations and their pre-Columbian history, the crossing of the Amazon on the Amazon river. This is the period of his first travel photos. In Brazil, he manufactures sets and jewelry, and embarks from Rio as a crew member on a sailboat to cross the Atlantic. This 45-day crossing to Cape Town will remain a milestone in its existence. Back in Geneva in 1982 he met the one who would become his companion. With her, he will navigate in the movement of the School of Fine Arts, after returning to Africa to learn about traditional techniques of lost wax casting. In Bobo-Dioulasso he meets the master founder who will pass on his knowledge to him. With friends, he built earthen huts in a bush village, and it was there that they held bronze workshops in 1984 and 1985 for students from the Geneva School of Fine Arts. He will return each winter to this African village to deepen his knowledge of bronze casting and continue his plastic research. He also photographs the natives during customary festivals. At the same time, he presents his first sculptures in a gallery in Geneva. In 1988, he went to Uruguay for a year with his partner Arlette, it was there that their daughter Alizée was born. He set up a foundry workshop and made several sculptures which he exhibited in Buenos-Aires, Montevideo, and Punta del Este. He fell in love with the old cars that crisscrossed the roads of Uruguay and bought a Ford A 1929 pickup truck, in which he would later carry out a photographic report. Back in Europe, he settled in France with his family, restored an old farmhouse, set up a workshop and executed the sculpture “Corps et Graphie” inaugurated in Geneva in May 1991. He exhibited in various galleries in Switzerland and France. His son Valentin was born in 1994. In 1996 he returned to Uruguay to make a report on “cachilas” (popular name given to old cars in Uruguay). That same year, he led a bronze internship during the Borne ceramic meetings. He incorporates other materials in his sculptures, such as wood, iron and stone, and works the earth again. His works, anthropomorphic in character, tend to purify lines and volumes and orient themselves towards stylized figuration and abstraction. In 1998 he won the “Year 2000” competition organized by the municipality of Gd-Saconnex in Geneva, and exhibited at the Shakan gallery in Lausanne. Inspired by nature, he presented his first outdoor installations during the Open Doors Workshops in the Cher in 1999, and became a member of the Center Céramique de la Borne. In 2000, he participated in the first Contemporary Art Fair in Bourges and exhibited at the Voutat gallery in Geneva. At the beginning of 2001, he returned to Uruguay in order to prepare the publication of a photo book for the “Ides et Calendes” editions, which would be released in September of that same year under the name “Cachilas, a story of jacks in Uruguay. In 2002, he exhibited at the Diorama gallery in Geneva, at the Shakan gallery in Lausanne, at the Contemporary Art Fair in Bourges, and created the North / South installation on the Esplanade Montbenon in Lausanne. At the same time, he took over the presidency of the Artipousse association which runs plastic arts workshops in rural areas in the Cher department. In 2003, he became a member of the Association of Sculptors of Geneva, he won the competition for the review Accrochage, and exhibited at the Beaujon space in Paris, invited by the City Hall of the 8th Arrondissement. In 2004, he exhibited as a guest artist at the Center de Création Céramique de La Borne on the theme of the pebble, and presented at the third Contemporary Art Fair the work "Triptych" which will be acquired by the city of Bourges. In 2005, commissioned by the city of Onex, he produced “Rencontre”, an artistic intervention on a sequoia in Brot Park in Geneva, a sculpture from which a tray will be extracted which will become a palaver table for the inhabitants of the district, place du 150ème. . In 2006, he mounted a solo exhibition at the Ferme de la Chapelle gallery in Geneva, then inaugurated the work Triptyque at the 3rd Biennale of Contemporary Art in Bourges. He then participated in the Lancy Quadrennial in Geneva, as well as the 8th edition of Quid Novi? in Gaillard. He also presents his work at the Simple gallery in Gstaad. In 2007, he was one of the winners of the 1% Artistic Competition at the Collège d'Isneauville in Rouen and presented the “Growing Up” project there. Then, he exhibited at the Galerie du Théâtre Mac-Nab in Vierzon where the city acquired the sculpture “Colossus”. Then he took part in the “Art in all its States” event in Limay where he carried out an in situ intervention on chestnut trees. He also exhibits at the United Nations Palace in Geneva. As part of a call for tenders, he inaugurates a Wall Signage Sculpture that he produced for the Sports Complex of Belleville-sur-Loire. In 2008, he participated in the Rencontres des Arts in Mers-sur-Indre, as well as in the 17th International Ice Sculpture Competition in Valloire. In 2009, he was invited to the workshop of the International Snow and Ice Sculptures in Hovden, Norway. He took part in the “Featherweight” exhibition at the Ferme de la Chapelle gallery in Geneva, then produced a fish for the “O'Fish Parade” event which took place as part of the Loire Festival in Orléans, and presented one of his new sculptures for the 11th edition of Quid Novi? In Gaillard. In 2010, he won the 19th International Ice Sculpture Competition in Valloire, and exhibits its terracotta pebbles during the “Territories in Movement” of Contemporary Ceramics Japan / France in Paris. In 2011, he won the 20th International Ice Sculpture Competition in Valloire, and exhibited his sculptures during the “A painter & a ceramicist” Opus I meetings, at the Center Céramique Contemporaine La Borne. In 2012, he exhibited new pieces for Opus II of the CCCLB. It presents wood and pebble sculptures...

Helene and Eric Bess are a team who have been collaborating for over 20 years. Both are professional artists with extensive experience in both the commercial and fine art fields. They presently work out of their studio in Florida, creating original art for gallery display, fine art crafts and taking commissions for murals & embellishments. Helene was born in Canada in 1949. She studied art in Europe as a young adult and attended Phoenix Pratt School of Design in New York and St. Petersburg Community College in Florida. She worked for advertising agencies and freelance art projects such as theater design and t-shirt designs for several companies. She owned and operated an art studio (“Artistic Endeavors”) in Melbourne, Fl. for five years. She started doing murals and embellishments (residential and commercial) from 1992 till present. She considers her early life in Europe the major source of her artistic influence as well as the works of Modigliani. Eric was born in Missouri in 1950. He started drawing literally as an infant and has never stopped. He was taking commissions for book covers & wall designs in his teens and studied art at Auburn University and The University of Alabama. He taught art in public schools in Alabama in the ‘70s. He worked as art director at Huntsville Educational Television for 6 years, as art director at Southern Sportswear in Daytona for 9 years, at Creative Signs & Designs in Flagler, Fl. for 6 years, and as a freelance artist and co-owner (with his wife Helene) of “BessStudio” (formerly “Artistic Innovations Inc.”) since 1998. His artistic influences include Michelangelo, Vermeer, Blake, Maxfield Parish...

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