Olivier Strebelle : The poetry of shapes

"Individualist, obstinate and daring, Olivier Strebelle has, in his life, as in his work, cultivated risk as an indispensable ingredient. He has kept an interest in figuration from his childhood, while staying away from all spiritual or aesthetic affiliations. Making objects out of subjects (large ones if possible) remained his predilection. Before bronze and steel, earth and snow were the sources of his inspiration". 

Philippe Dasnoy

Coming from a family of artists, Olivier Strebelle grew up in an environment that was favourable and conducive to the artistic creation. Initially a ceramist, he found his first mode of expression in terracotta and then gradually evolved towards bronze work. His aesthetic research is nourished by passing influences, his travels, his daily life and his encounters. His underwater explorations will inspire his work through subjects such as fish or other mythical creatures like the Triton of Ostend and the Siren of Ostend. 

From his encounters and his imagination germinate a whole series of characters forming a people of singular individuals with the People, the Sun Men or the Rifle Planter. For Olivier Strebelle everything starts small, his works emerge in his dreams and grow little by little. Whether they are monumental or more intimate, intended for the outdoors or for interior architecture, he always designs his pieces in close relationship with their environment. With Femme-paysages or Landscape about a Woman he imagines pieces in total harmony with nature, lying on the ground and blending with the vegetation, immutable, to become one with the landscape, pushing us to imagine that they have always been there and that they will be until the end of time. 

From Europe to the United States, he also responds to numerous public commissioning projects for urban space. His monumental pieces accompany history, architecture and Man in the City, such as The Lions in Atlanta, the Protecting Eagle VI in Saint-Louis, the Phoenix, or the Envol in Brussels. All in perspective, these sculptures truly interact with the city. His reflections on the human body mark a new advance in his formal research. 

This is the birth of mobile sculptures, whose infinitesimal movement can allow the comprehension of the piece. In the continuation of this work, he takes his research even further with Anthropomotion, a sculpture to which he wants to add an electric motor. These notions of experience and sharing are of major importance in Olivier Strebelle's work. Removable sculptures, sculpture bases, keys, puzzles are all elements used both to think of new forms and to share his sculptures with the public. 

Olivier Strebelle has kept her childish look and only thinks about playing. With the Square Lovers, Sur un grand pied, A la renversée or Jambe en l'air the base even becomes an integral part of the sculpture. These new assemblages sometimes push her works up to geometric abstraction (L'Epanouie, L'Enceinte) while keeping a resolutely organic character. 

Conceiving sculpture as a real game, the idea of interaction with the spectator is pushed to its paroxysm with the Théâtre vicinal for which he imagines seven pieces with which the spectator can enjoy, thus becoming an actor of the sculpture. An emblematic artist of his native country, Olivier Strebelle's work has left its mark on the world of sculpture multiple environments and continues to live wonderfully through her children.