Marseilles (AFP)

In the oldest soap factory in Marseille, in the south of France, a timeless industrial building, Frédérique Nalbandian fills buckets with hot soap and plunges long pieces of fabric into this material "very close to human" to make his last sculpture.

For 30 years, this 54-year-old woman from Azur has been working with soap, one of the rare contemporary artists to have chosen it, with plaster as a raw material.

"It would absolutely not interest me to work with soaps bought in stores. There is everything to do with manufacturing, with ancestral knowledge", explains the artist with long curly hair, in the heat.

A few meters away, hundreds of liters of soap cook in huge cauldrons, typical of Marseille know-how.

A sweet-acrid smell of soda and vegetable oils escapes from these brick and iron buildings dating from 1865, classified as a historic monument like the basilica of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde or the whole dwellings in the Cité radieuse du Corbusier.

In the distance, groups of tourists follow the guided tour of this living heritage company, without imagining that behind the tumult of this artisanal production, an artist is making a Panacea in drapery.

In the midst of a health crisis, "the choice of the Greek goddess of remedy, protective divinity, resonates with our troubled times", comments Alain Amiel, art critic who has just produced a documentary on his work.

"I am in the continuity of the three sculptures that I made three months ago from sheets and towels soaked in white soap", explains the sculptor trained at the Villa Arson in Nice (south) and today she - same teacher at Emap Villa Thiole, municipal school of plastic arts.

# photo1

But this fourth version is a little different, more structured, with more masculine features accentuated by the green soap which gives it an air of man from the desert.

This is the first time that she has swapped white soap for one made from olive pomace, residue from oil extraction.

It is fatter, slips a lot and requires quick movements.

And it dries quickly, forcing Frédérique Nalbandian regularly to rub her gloves, like a cook trying to remove excess paste from her hands.

- Imperfect and alive -

"Frédérique uses soap like paste, clay or ceramic. She is going to sculpt it, work it in drapery and give a new perspective on this raw material", estimates Stéphanie Guilbaud, marketing director of Savonnerie du Fer on horseback.

# photo2

Their partnership dates from 2013 and the soap factory most often offers the raw material to the artist.

They also deliver large blocks to him, as for his recent Hygieia, goddess of health, sawn into a block two meters high and one ton.

Soap, an everyday object par excellence, becomes a work of art that brings us back to our relationship with hygiene, especially in these times of Covid-19 and the search for anti-bacterial solutions - which have also made explode sales of Marseille soap.

"Francis Ponge has written a magnificent collection, + Le Savon +, in which he speaks of intellectual toilet. It is a writing that speaks to me a lot", advances Frédérique Nalbandian who believes that humanity seems to lack more and more " humility, tolerance, distance, responsibility ".

She loves this imperfect and living material, "very close to the human".

She even uses it in the form of soapy water or foam in designs.

Kept at a reasonable humidity level, the soap is rot-proof.

But put outside or in contact with water and hands, his works can become evolving.

# photo3

At the Nice gallery Eva Vautier, the daughter of artist Ben, Frédérique Nalbandian is on display until the end of August.

Visitors are invited to dip their hands in the water to touch its Panaceae.

They then dry their hands on a white cloth which they hang on the walls of the gallery.

As an abyss of these last months of pandemic ...

© 2021 AFP