Calvaire IX, 2025

Étienne Jacobée  

In this piece from the Calvaires  series, begun in 2019, Etienne Jacobée explores verticality and the tension between stability and imbalance.

Made of steel coated with a layer of earth and pigments, the sculpture evokes a mineral fragment extracted from the ground, marked by breaks and strata. The angular facets catch the light and reveal the raw, textured surface.

The structure rises while developing a progressively more imposing volume toward the top. Balancing precariousness with solidity, this Calvaire stands as a testimony to the transformation of matter and the traces left by time.

"The Calvaires first appeared in my work in 2015.
Sculptures of fossilised bodies, vegetal and mineral forms become a landscape of elements resonating with one another, similar to the rocks of the Sahara where sand-laden winds awaken, through abrasion, shapes that have lain dormant for millennia within the depth of matter.

Constantly changing outdoor light transforms the apparent stillness of the sculpture. This is particularly evident in works built from a multitude of planes, like facets that catch light or shadow depending on the time of day. They offer a rich reading of form, which appears under different aspects and tells a different story from one moment to another.

I use earth on some of my Calvaires, inspired by sacrificial altars stained with dried blood that I encountered at the Dogon exhibition at the Musée Dapper in 1994. The earth acts like a sedimentary crust, reinforcing the timelessness of the form, as if it had been unearthed by an archaeologist.

This influence also dates back to 1991 in Togo, where I worked with blacksmiths in Sokodé and was deeply marked by the earthen architecture of termite mounds and the red color of laterite soil.

I am particularly drawn to the idea of sculpture evolving over time, gradually becoming covered with moss, like standing stones that are remnants of another civilisation.
I imagine sculptures emerging unexpectedly along a path, at the edge of a field, at the border of a forest or deep within the woods.

I see my Calvaires as abandoned, forgotten in the middle of nowhere, revealing their character through exposure to the elements, marked by cold, wind and sun, and slowly covered with lichen."