The ArchiCOTE trophies represent a world of imagination bearing the signature of Sacha Sosno. Our tribute to the artist, through his wife, Mascha, who shared his life from Paris through New York to the far corners of the globe.
Up on the Colline de Bellet, the studio with an unbeatable view of the Côte d’Azur is all activity preparing for the important exhibitions on the artist who passed away last December, and who created the sculptures awarded to the winners of the ArchiCOTE competition. "These stones are pierced by that characteristic square shape. They're like a bridge between art and architecture," Mascha Sosno points out. Following Mougins's tribute exhibition, it's now the turn of the Musée Regards de Provence in Marseille to host its retrospective, Sacha Sosno and the Nice Schools, until 11 January. A very special 'dialogue' between some 50 of Sosno's works and those of the many, now internationally famous, artists who from the late Fifties bought into that great Nice adventure: Yves Klein, Martial Raysse and so many others.
A first pencilled rectangle
Alexandre Joseph Sosnowsky was born in Marseille then grew up between Riga and Nice where he had Henri Matisse as neighbour. He attended Paris's prestigious institute of political science then on his return started Sud-Communications, the review in which he expounded the first theory of the Nice School. He went on to work as a war reporter in Biafra, Bangladesh and Ireland. His wife recounts: "Sacha often went to the cinema with Arman. One day he showed Arman a black-and-white photo on which he had drawn a red rectangle. He wanted to know if that had already been done. Arman said no." So was born the concept of obliteration, of hiding in order to see better, that he would develop in painting, sculpture and architecture. Mascha continues: "To start with I hung these pictures on the wall, like icons, but he told me 'no way, it's the eye that creates the work'."
A Square Head of knowledge
If Sacha Sosno had a dream it was to sail the oceans. "He gave me a pulley and very soon afterwards we bought our dream boat," reminisces the woman who accompanied him in all his artistic peregrinations. On the boat he used his hands a lot, so tackled working in solid materials, first plaster and bronze then cut-out steel, marble and aluminium. His most famous work is unarguably the Square Head, a sculpture inhabited by the Louis Nucéra Library and its staff. But the artist has left his legacy everywhere; from the woman's head emerging from the frontage of the Hôtel Elysée Palace in Nice to the majestic horse at Cagnes-sur-Mer racecourse, he has dotted our urban environment with his poetry.
By Tanja Stojanov
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