Paysage, 2026

Guillaume Couffignal  

With Landscape, Guillaume Couffignal creates a monumental work situated at the intersection of sculpture, relief and painting.

The artist first constructs the composition from fragments of wood, preserving their cracks, layers, irregularities and traces of erosion. This original assemblage is subsequently translated into bronze, allowing the fragile qualities of the material to be preserved while giving them an entirely new physical presence.

The exceptional patina is one of the work's defining qualities. Its subtle shades of grey, black, brown, white and ochre recreate the appearance of wood altered, burnt or bleached by time. At first glance, the bronze almost disappears: the metal appears to retain the memory, texture and vulnerability of the original material.

The projecting fragments, recesses and layered surfaces interact constantly with light, casting changing shadows across the composition. The work therefore transforms according to the lighting and the viewer's position, fully asserting its sculptural dimension.

Without depicting a specific place, Landscape may evoke a ruined architecture, a cliff face, a fossilised forest or an imaginary map. Rather than representing nature, Couffignal allows a landscape to emerge directly from the material itself.

This sculpture is a unique bronze, cast as a single example. Reproduced in the catalogue of Guillaume Couffignal's monographic exhibition at the Espace Paul Rebeyrolle, it holds a particularly significant place within the artist's body of work.