FLORENT TESTA
Florent Testa, born in Nice in 1988, lives and works in Nice.
The artist teaches Applied Arts in the Nice academy and is particularly active in teaching artistic design methods and the development of new technologies in higher education.
In 2019, he won the “Dialogue avec la médiathèque Marie Toesca” prize: the artist’s permanent work can be seen on the esplanade of the town of Gattières in the Var valley.
A graduate of the Beaux Arts in Monaco, Florent Testa creates sculptures and installations in sand, beeswax and wool. These materials evoke a wild and timeless imagination.
Emancipating himself from tools, he favors a singular gesture combined with fundamental elements such as water, clay or heat.
These rudimentary means of implementation are the starting point for his work in creating objects with temporary, reversible forms.
Florent Testa proceeds to a photographic and video archiving of his works. The images serve as models to reactivate the protocols and to make the object again.
Some of these images are created as stand-alone video or photographic works.
In 2019 he is equipping his workshop with digital technologies such as 3D printers and a 3D scanner.
Wrestler,
2018
3D printed phosphorescent polymer
from the digitization of a clay original
18 x 12 x 8 cm
Strata on a sand bed,
2016 – 2019
Wax and sand – 66 x 57 x 48 cm
The sculpture is conceived through a performative process mixing water, the body and liquid wax.
The artist exploits the heterogeneity of these two materials to create a wax cloud. Immersed in water, he extrudes the wax by playing with the water, its surface, its waves and its pressure.
Workshop of wax casting in clay and sand
Participatory installation, detail.
Sand, clay, wax, water, sea sponge and wool – Variable dimensions
Personal exhibition
2016
E901*, Louis Vogade Cultural Center, Gattières
Group Exhibitions
2018
Nopoto, Atelier Frega, Nice
100 titles, Bel oeil – Loft, Nice
Wild Pansies, Garden of the Villa Le Roc Fleury, Cap d’ail
Acclimatization, Garden of the Villa Thuret, Antibes
Reservoirs, Workshop 28, Nice
2017
1516 Arts, The Deviation, Marseille
Incartades, La Déviation, Marseille
Dematerialization, Villa du Roc Fleuri, Cap d’Ail
2016
Stase, The Deviation, Marseille
European Heritage Day, Espace Rose de Mai, La Colle sur Loup
Environment Day, Maison de l’Environnement, Nice
Histoires de Dire, Garden of the Renoir Museum, Cagnes sur mer
Creator’s exhibition, Centre Expo Congrès, Mandelieu la Napoule
2014
Metamorphosis, Terra Amata Museum, Nice
2012
Draw by law, Espace Gred, Nice
State of affairs, Espace Gred, Nice
2011
Tell me what you eat, Hotel Van de Velde, Brussels
2010
I destroyed the dam, Galerie du Quai Antoine 1er, Monaco
2009
International Film Festival on Clay and Glass n°7, Forum, Montpelier
Prizes and competitions
2019 Winner of the Sculpture in Dialogue competition with the Marie Toesca Media Library of the Gattières Town Hall.
2009 Young Filmmaker Award Atelier d’arts de France and Arte Culture.
Training
2012 Master II Art and Scenography, ESAP Monaco
2011 Master I Visual Arts, Head Geneva
2008-2010 Bachelor of Visual Arts, ESAP Monaco
2006-2008 BTS Visual Expression / Communication Space, Olivier de Serres Paris
AZIMUTH
Benoît Barbagli, Tom Barbagli, Evan Bourgeau
Camille Franch-Guerra, Omar Rodriguez Sanmartin
Florent Testa, Anne-Laure Wuillai
With the participation of
Célia Vanhoutte, energy scenography
Frédéric Blancart, exhibition curator
“Who dragged us here? I curse him!”
This phrase came up often with these variations:
“My hands are frozen!”
“I fell in a hole again!”
“This is not the right way”.
Sometimes the valley silenced the grunts, at other times it gave them a powerful echo. At 2500 m of altitude in the Mercantour mountains, the crossing from Trécolpas to the Cougourde refuge was much more difficult than we had imagined.
First of all, because the first price snowshoes in tilt don’t work, it’s always unstable, you lose your balance and you fall on the side, and then good luck to get up again.
So most of us chose not to use them, and since there was at least a meter of snow, it was frozen enough to slide but also soft enough to sink down to our crotches. With the weight of the bag at each step, it was the fear that the snow would crack, because once blocked, it would take several minutes to get out.