Bruno Pélassy

“Bruno Pélassy is a protean artist: draftsman, sculptor, fashion designer…
He was born in 1966 in Vientiane (Laos) and died at the age of 36 in Nice. In his work, he explores and deploys a poetic of life and death linked to the AIDS virus, which he contracted in 1987. He was then barely 21 years old. In the 1990s, AIDS had already been a reality for nearly a decade; artists and activists were seizing on the subject and its violence. In this context, Pélassy inscribes his work in a political way (by the imaginary to which he refers), and in a sensitive and formal way (by the use of metaphors, staged figures or by the play of techniques employed). His work is as dark as it is sensitive and clear-sighted, romantic and luminous. An icon of his generation, he has profoundly influenced a whole generation of artists.”
Marie Canet

He started making jewelry around 1990, then borrowing from the sacred register, he came to make impossible ornaments beautifully intertwined with glass and crystal beads, displayed in reliquaries. He then resumed this work for haute couture and created a collection of jewelry and accessories. Since 1994, he has been interested in the small electronic mechanisms distributed by the toy industry to create a strange animated universe, populated by disturbing “Bugs”. Howling or whining, they hide their malformations or their malaise under amusing and reassuring attire: softness of the furs with which they are often adorned, bright colors, elegance of the lines or roundness of the forms.

Their movements are vain and tragic, their cries, stimulated by the spectator, comical and offbeat. Then there are “Creatures”, which from 2001, are exhibited in aquariums, graceful organic forms made of silk, pearls and silicone.