Yes, we can!

<p> <strong><em>Yes, we can!</em></strong><strong> Project, story, challenge</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> <u>June 30th, 2008. </u>Barack Obama’s campaign is raging. His motto makes a deep impression on every one of us. This <em>Yes, we can!</em> particularly stroke a chord with me as I had just been accepted to the prestigious Lycée Henri IV. This was a dream coming true, and the excitement of this big news was so great that when I announced it that very night at my sculpture workshop I broke the piece I was working on. Symbolically speaking, I could not stand to see this statue looking like a disarticulated puppet, embodying a lost momentum, when in itself it was supposed to be synonymous with a far-sighted project, a technical prowess, a new step in my art. As soon as I would repair it, it would break again. Once, twice… Ready to start all over again if the third attempt had not been fruitful. I had an intuition in which nobody trusted – not even my teacher – but which was correct in the end. It is therefore to celebrate an historic political event, but also the determination, obstinacy and motivation materialised in the sculpture that I have decided to call it <em>Yes, we can!</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Facts about <em>Yes, we can!</em> </strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em>Yes, we can!</em> is a sculpture :</p> <p> - made out of chamotte black clay, a kind of granular clay preventing the object to explode during baking</p> <p> - of about 50 centimetres</p> <p> - enamelled in “auré” brown, the colour giving it a shimmering/bronze aspect</p> <p>  </p> <p> When I broke <em>Yes, we can!</em> it fell on its arm, the one behind the back. It’s that part and this movement in particular that were difficult to reproduce… but whose suppleness I was finally able to achieve again, beyond my expectations.</p> <p> <img alt="Work3" src="https://kkbb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/project_image/image/70551/work3.jpg"></p> <p>  </p> <p> <u>March, 23rd 2013.</u> Vernissage of my first exhibition. Most importantly, it is the occasion to gather many people dear to my heart before I leave for Russia at the end of the summer. I am about to take this big leap in the context of SciencesPo’s exchange programme, and I have chosen Moscow for its setting. It is no coincidence that I have selected the exuberant capital for an once-in-a-lifetime experience, to simply <em>Move On</em> like the name of my exhibition suggested. It is no coincidence either that it was <em>Yes, we can!</em> featuring on the invitations. When visiting Moscow shortly before, I was hypnotized by its liveliness, energy and dynamism: I was under the spell of this unstoppable city. On every level: political, economic, artistic. During my vernissage, as I was getting more and more offers, I fully grasped that my sculptures could mean many things to many people and not only to me… I fully grasped that they could be more than a hobby.  Besides, I had heard that the Tsars’ smelters’ knowhow was perpetuated from generation to generation to present day, and that I could easily get an introduction to the modern craftsmen… I did not need more to be convinced that <em>Yes, we can!</em> would be travelling with me.  The idea to make some bronzes out of this statue, already of that colour, had taken root a while ago, but it really blossomed when some kind acquaintances offered to display them in their own galleries. This was how I left towards new adventures with 60 kg of luggage and my head bursting with plans.</p> <p> <img alt="Work5" src="https://kkbb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/project_image/image/70550/work5.jpg"><img alt="Work1" src="https://kkbb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/project_image/image/70560/work1.jpg"><img alt="Workinprogress" src="https://kkbb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/project_image/image/70558/workinprogress.jpg"></p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> <u>February 3</u><u>rd</u><u>, 2014</u>. Answer from Cambridge. I’m offered a place at my first-choice University and programme. However, this offer is conditional, notably on me being able to afford the fees associated with studying in one of the best universities in the world. I could not dream of a better occasion to combine passion and reason and finally throw myself into this big challenge: go for the gold thanks to the bronze. <em>Yes, we can!</em> For some I’m talented, for others deserving, but for all I need to prove I am able to find the means to achieve my goals. It’s what I aim for right now with (and thanks to) you.</p>