Born in Cognac, Francis Terrade spent his adolescence in Montbron. At the age of twenty, he toured the world with the French Navy. Back on dry land, he entered a drama school in Paris. He then worked as a lighting designer for shows.
Show lighting is an ephemeral job and once the show is over, the lights go out. It was here that the desire for more sustainable work came to him, but always in the field of light. At the beginning of the 1990s, he found himself in the artistic world. He lives in an abandoned factory, where a community of artists resides, an autonomous village of eighty artists and craftsmen, in the Paris region. “It was there that two statuary sculptors opened their workshop to me, took me under their wings and gave me a taste for sculpture, particularly the representation of the human body. The female body is my preference. Philosophically, I think that the light comes from women,” says Francis Terrade. From there, the support for his lamps takes the shape, more or less stylized, of the woman's body.
The artist mainly works with copper, assembled plates, tubes, and also castings. For the casts, the sculptor creates a model which is entrusted to a foundryman. From this model the founder creates a few pieces which are all numbered. Once removed from the mold, the pieces are reworked by the artist. The bulb becomes the head of the female body and the reflector the hat held at arm's length. The lamps thus created are of all sizes, lamps to place on a desk on a piece of furniture or much larger to decorate a living room.
“These objects, these lamps, are markers of my life, my encounters, my loves. »
“These objects, these lamps, are markers of my life, my encounters, my loves,” expresses the sculptor, perhaps with a certain nostalgia.
He wanted to leave Paris
Francis Terrade wanted to leave Paris. To store his equipment he bought a barn in Saint-Sornin where part of his family lives. Last July, he exhibited some of his works at the Vieux-Château de Montbron. While strolling through the streets of the town, he passes in front of the premises of the former merchant and cycle repairer. The door is open. He enters, and in this room he is reminded of the happy hours spent here fifty years ago with the bicycle repairer who was a friend of the neighborhood children.
The idea of settling here is no longer in doubt. The premises belong to the municipality and are free. Discussions with the mayor, who wanted to welcome artists to energize the town center, the deal was concluded quickly. The two rooms in the premises, one serving as a workshop and the other as an exhibition room, are rented to the artist.
