- BOURGOGNE MAGAZINE - N° 44 June-July 2002 -

Tapiézo places art in the heart of society

A bourgignon artist now living in French Provence, Tapiézo synthesises the art of life and the warmth of those two regions. His pictures marry ochre and metal, use "a familiar abstraction" to establish the contact, to "raise perception". They show in galleries, softly impose in the business world. But Tapiézo projects himself further, developing workshops during which everyone, both children and adults may express themselves, free their tensions and find in the eye of others the confidence they miss so much.

A few square centimetres of serenity in a world of raw profit margins before income tax deduction. A gaze that clings to original art pieces, unique, contrasting with the easy posters that reduce artists to mere wall paper. His work sells to firms, quotes on the art market, schools and businesses are beginning to catch on to his therapy. Tapiézo could be a happy artist. He's yet an unsatisfied man. "I want to see further and offer to my century" he states, straight off.

Just ego ? A simple need to place his goal as high as possible. There where, according to him, the eye should "rise" : " Picasso had cubism to cross borders. The important thing is to show a new scripture. It must come without searching. It should come from inside, from the heart. As a gift ! That is the only truth behind the uniqueness.

Hands rummaging the sand and paint, back to the extasy of the sand box, kindergarten body-painting, primal inquiry of creation, expression liberated. "All my strength is there, and my approach of a world resolutely less violent will find the energy to be applied. It will become a standard, that's my belief."

Universal alphabet

Tapiézo concentrates on the present, on that ocean of pain the undertow of which hits senses daily and invites to commit, militate, combat closely : "I privilege action over thought. Undertaking, being in project, to be 'able to' are the real keys of life. That's what I wish to all the children, to be actors of their lives."

Persuaded individual sufferance feeds on lack of self-esteem, the artist tries to bring art into the lives of everyone since his first paintings. His work always involves a grid, of metal or wood. Much less a division, the grid, in his hands, is a reading tool, the layout of a page where recursive soothing symbols occur, circle, triangle, dash, point, from a common alphabet, a universal algebra.

Within other pictures, repeated Tuscan doors convey the pattern. Here we have an "intimate warm abstraction" as a hint to the spectator towards community and contact. "I want easy access, universality, insists Tapiézo. Give anchorage, like a hand shake, a way to put one's vision into other eyes."

True to his active philosophy, the painter soon developed what he calls the "Tapiézo Approach", to help resolve failures, conflicts in schools and in the business world. Relying on the therapeutic virtues of art and expression that revalue one's self : his "school of the future" is "a return to the sand box inducing hope and success with pleasure." "Permit to express the non-said to suppress all impulse. Internal violence, aggresivity can be outdistanced through a symbolic artistic gesture. Sublimation, enthusiasm occur when other people's attention is accepted, the work is shown and relayed by the press."

The physical contact with the material remind, according to him, of "the cradle swaying" at "the origin of childhood" : "During these workshops, we extract from deep layers. Sometimes, for the adults, tears are drawn, it's a liberation." A real opportunity to develop self-government and enlarge collective capacity.

This "school of the future" was experienced in Provence, Dijon, Paris, but also in Belgium and in the United States : "It's still just droplets ! Introduce my method to national educational structures, have it applied from kindergarten to mid highschool to create better relationship between teachers and students. Develop individual autonomy, support society, the professional environment with this unusual process which is also an outlet towards any conceptual approach."

Tapiézo deeply feels this extraction of violent movements can be "adapted to any child in the world" because his approach has no linguistic constraints. He has proven that during a demonstration at the Oostende museum for the 'Ecole Normal de Gent' students. Replacing the word "child" by "employee", his "approach" becomes "Company of the future" : "Under a recreational aspect operates a mental structuration permitting access to elaborate concepts."

Softly, painlessly, in colour.