Benjamin Sabatier — Concrete & Colors
The exhibition
The Concrete & Colors exhibition at Xippas, dedicated to a new series by Benjamin Sabatier, reveals the aesthetics of the construction site and revalues a form of work that has been displaced by industrialisation. In keeping with socio-economic reality, the artist brings his sculptures to life with a lively combination of industrial materiality and playful vitality.
Spread throughout the space, the works invite visitors to wander through a constructivist play universe, reminiscent of modernist plastic language. The title of the exhibition suggests this combination, where cutting and colouring confront raw concrete and three-dimensional modelling. Like puzzles, the sculptures reveal a performative dimension of the creative process. As constructions, they subvert productivist logic by leaving the authentic textures of the cut-out cardboard visible. The flaws, thicknesses and fragility of these fragments enable experimental transformation and an internal life within the material, in dialogue with colours, as opposed to a fixed representation closed in on itself.
Sabatier's works are distinguished by the way they summon space from surfaces. An assembly of two-dimensional planes sculpts the volume. Made of concrete, these forms nevertheless come to life thanks to the texture of the cardboard, giving an illusionist dimension to this deconstructed construction site. Colour also infuses the inert neutrality of the materials with a joyful and less oppressive expressiveness. The artist plays with these tensions between lightness and massiveness, between emptiness and fullness. The circular base, extracted from the central hole in the sculpture, does not support the construction: it completes its absence by materialising it. Each piece thus achieves a balance based on this duality.
For the artist, emptiness becomes almost the subject of the physical experience of the work. It acts as an intermediary, even a terrain of exchange between the object, the gaze and the movement of the viewer. This perception then functions as an active gesture and a way of inhabiting the emptiness and space occupied by the work. Benjamin Sabatier does not only design sculptures, but a broader device — a situation open to all forms of interaction. His art thus constitutes a place of agency, engaging in constant dialogue with the viewer: an energy that transcends mere materiality, transforming the fragility of cardboard and the coldness of concrete into a lasting dynamic.
Chenyu Zhu
Spread throughout the space, the works invite visitors to wander through a constructivist play universe, reminiscent of modernist plastic language. The title of the exhibition suggests this combination, where cutting and colouring confront raw concrete and three-dimensional modelling. Like puzzles, the sculptures reveal a performative dimension of the creative process. As constructions, they subvert productivist logic by leaving the authentic textures of the cut-out cardboard visible. The flaws, thicknesses and fragility of these fragments enable experimental transformation and an internal life within the material, in dialogue with colours, as opposed to a fixed representation closed in on itself.
Sabatier's works are distinguished by the way they summon space from surfaces. An assembly of two-dimensional planes sculpts the volume. Made of concrete, these forms nevertheless come to life thanks to the texture of the cardboard, giving an illusionist dimension to this deconstructed construction site. Colour also infuses the inert neutrality of the materials with a joyful and less oppressive expressiveness. The artist plays with these tensions between lightness and massiveness, between emptiness and fullness. The circular base, extracted from the central hole in the sculpture, does not support the construction: it completes its absence by materialising it. Each piece thus achieves a balance based on this duality.
For the artist, emptiness becomes almost the subject of the physical experience of the work. It acts as an intermediary, even a terrain of exchange between the object, the gaze and the movement of the viewer. This perception then functions as an active gesture and a way of inhabiting the emptiness and space occupied by the work. Benjamin Sabatier does not only design sculptures, but a broader device — a situation open to all forms of interaction. His art thus constitutes a place of agency, engaging in constant dialogue with the viewer: an energy that transcends mere materiality, transforming the fragility of cardboard and the coldness of concrete into a lasting dynamic.
Chenyu Zhu
When
14/06/2025 - 26/07/2025