Valentine Schlegel : Je Dors, Je Travaille

Exhibition at CAC Brétigny, 30 September - 09 December 2017

The sculptor and ceramist Valentine Schlegel (1925-2021) developed a daily plastic practice between Paris and Sète. She masters several techniques to create everyday objects with sculptural bodies: wooden cutlery, ceramic vases, leather bags, plaster fireplaces. "I sleep" and "I work" are two statements painted on a reversible sign hanging on the door of Valentine Schlegel's studio in Sète. They correspond to two different times of the day, inviting isolation or company.

This monograph sheds light on Valentine Schlegel's approach, whose practice, intimately linked to her daily life, responds to a certain logic: that of creating her own living conditions. Biographical notes sequence the book and shed light on Valentine Schlegel's approach and life.

Thanks to a rich and precisely selected iconography, the book makes it possible to document all of the fireplaces that Valentine Schlegel created for private homes - about a hundred from 1959 to 2002. The other aspects of her work are also discussed in order to grasp the whole of her practice, which is intimately linked to her way of life, where the questions of autonomy of production and friendship are central.