les bifaces

Gallery Pierre Nocca - Les Bifaces.

At the age of 96 Pierre Nocca signed his new sculpture “La Licorne” (The Unicorn). What follows is an excerpt from an interview with the art critic und collector Jean van Pelt:

Van Pelt: For some time now you have been creating sculptures you call “Bifaces”. How did you develop the idea for these bas-relief sculptures?

Pierre Nocca: I wanted to create sculptures, whose three-dimensionality resulted from textured (two-dimensional) lines, like a kind of highly reduced sketch. I came to this as a result of observing a small pebble with very fine veins raised slightly above its surface. I was in the great plains of northern Spain when I found it and I just stood there, staring at the little stone in my outstretched hand. It immediately took on this really strong energy there in such a broad, grand landscape. It all started with that pebble and I borrowed the term “Biface” (Hand Axe) from the prehistorians. The name references the first stonemasons, the first sculptors and their two-faced, hand-carved prehistoric axes. It reminds us that there was a beginning, when humans first started experimenting with materials, began to master and make use of them. The idea of two faces sort of mirrors the experience of observing an object in your hand. What I am relating to is also relating to me; it affects me. Le face a face. In my “Bifaces” the two sides are identical mirror images like the faces of Janus, one side directed towards the past, the other side looking into the future. Whether I like it or not, the works incorporate these various historical narratives and these expressive and symbolic processes.

Van Pelt: Your sculptures, your “Bifaces” are becoming leaner and more slender, their intensity has been reduced to a minimum.

Pierre Nocca: Yes. As I began to develop these works, I was really hesitant at first. I found myself bound to a style that was more about hiding the main lines rather than emphasizing them. My current works do just the opposite, they aim to free the lines, the marks, and this reduces the intensity of the "Bifaces" significantly. I am not trying to create a visible mesh of lines so much as I am aiming to preserve the opacity of their silhouette.

Van Pelt: And you don’t have any problem breaking through your “Bifaces”?

Pierre Nocca: I’m always looking for levity. The openings are visible spaces that you can look into and become parts of the sculptures that offer the viewer space for imagination and interpretation.

Gallery Pierre Nocca - Les Bifaces.