Jivko

It is always the “visit by chance” which happened to impress most.

The exhibition of JIVKO at l’Orangerie du Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris is like a breeze in this summer which refreshes our senses.

Jivko Jeliazkov is a renowned sculptor whose works are found in prestigious collections all around the world. Born in Bulgaria, the artist is well-known in France where he has lived and worked since 1990. The representation of his works is full of life and movement, with themes revolving around man’s evolution and transcendental fate. With a delicate balance between traditional subjects and contemporary forms, Jivko’s sculptures stimulate the viewer’s imagination. He captures wild and primitive energies with his soft and angular geometry.

Embodiment of lightness in the materiality

The amazing thing about Jivko’s sculptures is their sense of lightness. Instead of the mass of the metal, we find in his works a lace-like sensation. This apparently mocks the laws of gravity, by contrasting the actual weight of the materials and the apparent lightness of the works. The forms of the sculptures express a movement and progression, we feel as if they can breathe and move, representing a notion of life and energy.

The details of the sculpture

Life and energy shown in the sculpture

The lightness and details

Between the myth and humanity

Different from Rodin who used to incorporate in his works his aura, Jivko seeks to highlight the soul from the nature and the environment. He brings the expressive creation of the nature in front of the audiences: the butterflies, the feathers etc. The compositions of his works usually reveal a mix between the myth and the humanity.

Between myth and humanity

Other than the “lightness” and the “movement” of these bronze sculptures, the paintings of the artist are also impressive. In the work « Légèreté » (lightness), we feel like the feathers are slowly falling from above. One may associate this with the opening scene of the film Forrest Gump, in which a feather was falling slowly under the background music.