Soul Of Wood

We all have five senses, one of which is always more developed. For Akim Zerouali it is touch, especially that of raw material from which his art of sculpture originates Wood, proud and alive, reigns supreme in his work. Its inner qualities and resistances guiding Zerouali’s hands as much as his mind or creative will. Attempts and trials, cravings and renunciations followed one another along the years until life circumstances put Akim Zerouali against the wall or rather against his desire to sculpt and gave him to means to realize his dream. A studio in New York, away from his home. Total freedom. Many artists fear the blank page. For Akim Zerouali it worked as a revelation and triggered an important production. Totems for the most part, or vertical pieces that have created in a few years an original body of work which throws the spectator into intimate and often unsuspected abysses. The repetitiveness of his sculptures pushes us towards the mother forest of each piece, towards distant cultures far from his Parisian hometown. Their multitude reminds us that we belong to a world in which originality result from a quest, not from solitude.