Visit an exhibition and touch and handle the works

May 23, 2024

Unlike many artists, Hervé Larrieu likes people to touch his sculptures.

"It's another way of participating in the creative space," explains the artist, who lives in Bidarray in the Basque Country and forges his sculptures out of scrap metal at a forge in nearby Gabat.

One of the two participants in the exhibition Bi eskultore / Two sculptors alongside Aitor Ruiz de Egino, from Hernani in Guipuzcoa, Hervé has a novel approach to presenting his work to the public.

Normally, he comments, exhibition organisers ask visitors not to touch the works. Here, it's the opposite. "I invite everyone who visits this exhibition to touch the sculptures."

It is an invitation warmly accepted by visitors to the exhibition, and in particular by the students of Lycée Frantsesenia in Saint Jean Pied de Port.

A visit to the exhibition with their art teacher, Julie Guerin, introduced them to contemporary works of art of a kind that they had not previously encountered.

"The sculptures may have seemed strange to them at times but in all cases they provoked a reaction," reports Julie.

"The fact of being able to touch the sculptures and position them differently surprised and intrigued them. So it was rather a special visit, prompting them to extend their vision of art in general and to question what makes a work of art."