“The magic of a sculpture happens when we feel the overwhelming urge to hold it in our hands and touch it. The works of Anders Børgesen (b.1982 in Herning, Denmark) instantly charm through their harmonious structure, sensual surface, and subtle presence in space. While training to become an art teacher, the future artist practised drawing, painting, and experimented with various materials such as papier mâché, wax, wire or clay... Then something clicked. “I bought a vase by Axel Salto and was captivated by the tactility and the vitality of its form. It seemed almost corporeal to me. I began shaping my own vases and took wheel-throwing classes. From the moment I touched clay, it felt strangely familiar to me”, he recalls.

Influenced by the golden age of Danish ceramics – figures such as Axel Salto, but also Arne Bang and the Saxbo studio –, Anders Børgesen creates objects that are both structured and organic. Hand-thrown, his open-topped vessels are built from simple volumes, most often rounded or ovoid in form. “The egg symbolises beginnings. It is an archetypal shape that carries a sense of mystery. I like the idea that my pieces might contain something unknown, something quietly powerful”, he says.

While some of his works feature a spiralling movement through oblique lines that coil toward the rim, most draw their energy from the rhythmic interplay of their patterns, alternating hollows and reliefs. The decorations are sculpted, incised directly into the clay. Honeycombed, striated, geometric, the motifs repeat with near-metrical precision, yet are never quite identical.

Inspired from nature, some of his sculptures are reminiscent of buds, pine cones or beehives... Yet many other images also find their way into Anders Børgesen’s world, from Michaelangelo’s drawings for the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome to the rock formations of Death Valley, from science fiction films to the simple folds of fabric.

“I make preliminary sketches, he explains, but the creative process is intuitive. I never use rulers or templates. The lines and cut-outs are made freehand, as I aim to strike a balance between structure and fluidity. My work may seem methodical, even symmetrical, yet I sometimes let chance direct me. As for colour – or rather, glaze –, it plays an important but secondary role. It is there to enhance the material, reveal the patterns, without overpowering the form.”

For his first exhibition at Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, the young Danish ceramicist has chosen to present twenty-seven works of varying sizes (from 8 to 60 cm in height), all created within the past eight months. “My aim, Børgesen concludes, is to awaken curiosity through contemplation. I want visitors to feel this sense of stillness and movement, this quiet vitality I strive to convey”.

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Guillaume Morel

Journalist, art critic

Translated by Marina Duval Matthews