A: It seems to us that your pieces involve an element of time and process - they grow, spin, swing, make sound, etc. Why is this quality important in your work?
S: Time has always been part of my work. In the beginning I used time more in its subject itself, like for example, in the video The Desert Sweepers or in the installation Personal Times and Pénélope, le retour, works from 2003. Later I used the notion of time more as a tool, like for Swing, Floating Memories, Many Spoken Words, works that you have seen in the exhibition “Words and Memories”. I like to confront the spectator with a different time, a kind of conscious rupture or a form of contemplation expressed by sound or movement seeking a certain sense of infinity …
A: The depth and range of your involvement with sound is unique for a visual artist. What is the relationship between music and visual art for you?
S: I think the most important for an artist is to use a personal language, to express ideas in the most honest way. As I grew up with music (my parents are both classical musicians) and I studied music, the cello, parallel to visual art, music and sound are the “tools” to use to create images and express in the most natural way the messages I want to share.
When it comes to an exhibition, it takes shape in the spirit of a composition, by taking account of the tonality and the rhythm between the various works in a given space. Each one functions like an instrument or a voice in this set. (“dans cet ensemble”, in French)
A: You work in so many different media — sculpture, photography, video, audio, drawing, installation. How do you make the decision to realize your work in a certain medium?
S: The decision of medium depends on the core idea I want to express. First the question for me is how can I translate notions of silence, breath, sigh, nuances, the setting in suspension or counterpoints and contrasts, into a visual language.
A: Information included with the show at Peter Blum Gallery mentions that many of the works on view were realized through discussions with your partner Jean-Lou Majerus. Would you share your collaborative process? What are the challenges and rewards of working collaboratively with another person?
S: For years, we work together on many of the projects. Jean-Lou helps me to manage the technical part of the realization, but we also co-signed some of the works as for example Bird Cage, a sculpture out of neon which we also developed in a big sculpture for a public art project in Luxembourg. Our dialogue and collaboration is extremely important for me.
A: What are you currently working on or looking to explore in the future?
S: There are works like Many Spoken Words which talk about literature and homage to some artists or writers which are important references for me. In some new works I develop ideas linked to the importance of language, words and the act of writing. Musical scores and notations are part of this research. I also currently work on a Special Edition of my recent book “Notes” together with Peter Blum.