Les nuages (2019)

Gränbystadens Vårdcentral, Uppsala, Sweden

Les nuages is a site-specific installation comprising 18 glazed stoneware sculptures, commissioned by Region Uppsala for Gränbystadens Vårdcentral in 2019.

Inspired by cloud formations in medieval Persian miniature paintings, where clouds appear as expressive forms with a dramatic presence of their own, the sculptures inhabit the architecture of the health centre. Distributed across walls, around corners and throughout transitional spaces, they engage with the building’s colours and spatial features.

As visitors move through the building, the sculptures reveal themselves gradually, inviting a playful game of hide-and-seek between the works, the architecture and the viewer.

Material: Glazed stoneware, 18 sculptures, variable dimensions

Commissioned by: Region Uppsala, Sweden

Year: 2019

© Elvire Soyez

Courtesy the artist

Saudade (2012/2018)

Elvire Soyez

Saudade is a wall-based installation comprising 29 sculptures made from pipe cleaners. The coloured lines delineate everyday objects, bones and skull-like forms, occupying a space between drawing and sculpture. Their cast shadows extend the work beyond the wall, shifting with the light and the viewer’s position.

Combining playful imagery with references to mortality and transience, the work brings together humour and melancholy. Art critic Peter Cornell has characterised Soyez’s practice in terms of an “exhilarated melancholy”, in which dark humour takes on a liberating quality (Expressen, 14 December 2012).

Saudade was first exhibited in Elvire Soyez’s solo exhibition Les ancêtres, matière morte at Angelika Knäpper Gallery, Stockholm, in 2012. The work was subsequently acquired by Public Art Agency Sweden (Statens konstråd) and permanently installed at the Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2018.

Work details

Elvire Soyez

Saudade, 2012

Pipe cleaners, 29 sculptures

Dimensions variable

Installed 2018, Embassy of Sweden, Bangkok, Thailand

Collection of Public Art Agency Sweden (Statens konstråd)

© Elvire Soyez. Courtesy of the artist.

Le fond des océans

2017 — Shortlisted proposal for Östermalmshallen, Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm konst

© Elvire Soyez

The passage connecting the market hall to the winter garden brings to mind the Italian Renaissance grotto, particularly the Grotta del Buontalenti in Florence. Commissioned by Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, it was created in the late sixteenth century by the architect, artist and stage designer Bernardo Buontalenti.

The Renaissance grotto was conceived as a place of leisure and contemplation, where sculpted human figures, flora and fauna, rocks, stalactites and shells seem to come to life. Often taking on anthropomorphic forms, these elements create a world in which harmony and order gradually emerge from apparent chaos. They also evoke the sensual pleasures of fresh, natural produce and a sense of wonder at the richness of nature.

With Le fond des océans, I wanted to offer visitors a similar experience to that of entering a grotto by the sea — a place of mystery, tranquillity and astonishment.

The proposal consists of a series of sculptures in glass, brick and ceramics, drawing on the visual language of Renaissance grottoes while reflecting the abundance of the market hall. Rendered in soft pastel colours and illuminated by subdued lighting, the sculptures would extend across the walls and ceiling of the passage, creating an immersive and contemplative environment.

The sea became the central theme, both for its historical role in international trade and, above all, for its extraordinary wealth of imagined treasures and mysterious creatures.

Handcrafted in collaboration with local artisans and specialists, the sculptures would offer a tactile contrast to the industrial character of the passage.

My intention was to invite visitors to cross a threshold into a parallel world, where nature and imagination meet, and where stillness and wonder coexist.

Au Feu! (2011)

Inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Match Girl, the work explores a child’s curiosity about fire, alongside the caution it demands.

The sculpture takes the form of an oven, built from handmade bricks. An opening positioned at a child’s height invites young visitors to feed the oven with fuel of their choosing.

Handmade brick sculpture

2011, Smedslättsskolan, Stockholm

Public commission, Stockholm konst

© Elvire Soyez. Courtesy the artist.