Behind an unassuming façade in Dieulefit, a stone staircase leads to Agathe Rottier’s studio.

She welcomes me in her work overalls, with a gentle smile and an attentive gaze. Within moments, I realise that I am not simply visiting a studio, but entering a place of research and exploration.

Before choosing ceramics, Agathe considered several craft professions. Her path first led her to the Diplôme des Métiers d’Art at Sèvres, then to La Cambre in Brussels, where she spent three years developing a practice that brings together ceramics, geology, rocks and minerals. A final fourteen-month training programme in Dieulefit deepened her connection to the region, where she ultimately chose to live and establish her practice.

I am particularly drawn to Agathe Rottier’s contemporary sculptures, which are becoming the distinctive signature of her practice.
“Each sculpture is worked from within, sometimes with mineral inclusions, sometimes with porcelain slip or glaze, and often with all of these combined.”
“Clay allows endless possibilities,” Agathe explains. “Unlike wood or metal, it is infinitely malleable and generates very little waste.”

Her sculptures are conceived as metaphors for the human condition. Built from superimposed layers, they evoke the successive strata of a life.
“The marks I leave with my fingertips or my fists become witnesses to the history of each piece. Some carry softness; others retain the memory of violence.”

These sculptural elements can be arranged in multiple compositions, allowing each installation to evolve according to its context. Designed for both indoor and outdoor settings, they gradually absorb the traces of weather, sunlight and time.

What moves me most in Agathe Rottier’s work is the rare combination of remarkable technical mastery and an artistic practice that continues to evolve through research and experimentation. I am particularly drawn to artists who explore as deeply as they create. In her work, the precision of the gesture is in constant dialogue with an enduring curiosity for clay, minerals, fire and the transformations they reveal.

Her sculptures already possess a distinctive voice within contemporary ceramics. They evoke both landscape and the human condition, where geological strata become metaphors for the layers of our own lives. Some works reveal their full depth only after meeting the person who shaped them. This is precisely why I wish to introduce Agathe’s practice through Terre & Lumière: creating encounters that allow both the artwork and the artist to be experienced together.

Materials: Stoneware, porcelain, and mineral inclusions (schist, quartz, granite…)

Techniques: Coil building and hand modelling

Highlights: Monumental ceramic sculptures