The Mountain and the Fly

Francis Ballu, a cabinetmaker, won first prize in the "Best Workers of France" competition in 1979. Versatile, he is also a sculptor, engraver and poet. In 1980, with Rémi Colmet Daâge, architect and Martin Spreng, cabinetmaker, he founded the Xylos group. In 1998, Xylos joined the prestigious association of Grands Ateliers de France. The group quickly gained a good reputation which allowed it to multiply public and private orders.

The approach of these passionate designers is in the tradition of the Arts & Crafts movement, created in England in the mid-19th century by William Morris, who, while industrialization was in full swing, defended the alliance of the beautiful and the useful, traditional skills and especially their involvement in the creation of furniture and everyday objects. The achievements of the Xylos group, likewise blend art and life.

It is the functional sculptures, the sculptures-furniture that interest Francis Ballu in the group. They are always enigmatic: La Boule (1998) is a bar, or a cigar cellar, the sails of boats in regattas (2006) are used as benches in the garden of the Chemin de l'Ile, the Totem-seats(1996), etc. They have an unexpected, magical and unusual character, which is due to their secret part. Indeed, some of them do not let us suspect their function, thus the almost cubist abstract sculpture, Le Poids de l'écriture (2003), reveals its identity as a writing box.

Their creations are sophisticated and well thought out. They are designed with wood species and innovative technologies. What interests them above all is to combine different materials. They work mostly with wood and resin to which they give the appearance of stone. The illusion of materials is characteristic of their work. The works are deeply rooted in a dialogue with nature that revolves around the link between the mineral and the vegetable.

After a collaboration of thirty years, the paths of the protagonists of the Xylos group are separating. Francis Ballu continues his creative activity in the continuity of the issues that have always been his, which are in a way his DNA. If he is more and more interested in "pure" sculpture, he remains fundamentally passionate about the functional dimension of sculpture. Today he works with Julien Tillie, his right-hand man, and Etienne de Saint Exupéry - a remarkable mechanic - who collaborates on the mechanical part of the movements. For the past ten years, Francis Ballu has been creating sculptures, called Gmites, which support the branches of the weeping blue cedar, the jewel of the arboretum of the Vallée-aux-Loups departmental park in the Hauts-de-Seine. This work develops and grows with the rhythm of nature. The sculptures are living elements in symbiosis with the tree. They are one with it.

From June 3, the Galerie de l'Institut presents an exhibition devoted to his latest creation, entitled La Montagne et la Mouche, a binary title that wonderfully summarizes his research. The work is a sculpture. It evokes a mountain. The sculpture opens up and reveals its part of mystery, surprise, unusual. It unfolds a workshop to make fishing flies, which consists of a workbench, a vise and a set of drawers intended to store the materials needed to make these baits. This extraordinary creation of a passionate person presents us with mineral effects and mineral petrification effects that show a great sensitivity to the material. The Mountain and the Fly is accompanied in the exhibition by a large wall decoration, on the theme of glaciation, whose functionality is to be discovered, which is entitled The Glacier.

Anne Coron, in collaboration with Francis Ballu