Jean-Pierre Formica Reimagines Les Alyscamps in Arles with Monumental Ceramics

This summer, Les Alyscamps in Arles welcomed Jean-Pierre Formica’s “Panta Rhei,” a sculptural exhibition that transforms the historic necropolis into a contemplative art trail. Accompanying this show is “Rituels,” presented at Galerie Regala in the center of Arles, which features a series of works on paper.

The renowned Roman Necropolis, once celebrated by artists like Van Gogh, is a place where ancestral spirits seem to linger and where history feels alive—less a relic of the past than a presence in the present.

From Arles to the World: The Monumental Vision of Formica

“Panta Rhei“ features 15 sculptural works scattered throughout Les Alyscamps, the ancient necropolis located just outside the city walls. A tree-lined path, dotted with Roman relics, guides visitors toward the Église Saint-Honorat. Along the way, Formica’s works emerge—some freestanding in nature, others tucked into small architectural spaces like the Chapelle Saint-Accurse and the Chapelle des Porcelets.

Untitled, is a silkscreen installation composed of flowing lines—some tight, others loose—that echo the rhythm of the trees. It’s a reminder that contemporary art often draws directly from the natural world.

“It is here that Jean-Pierre Formica invites us to explore space, the depth of transformations, to bring to the surface this stratified memory. The artist takes us on a journey from the prestigious sarcophagi spread across Europe to the very essence of the materials that shape our lives,” writes Matthieu Bameule.

As visitors approach Église Saint-Honorat, Formica’s pieces seem to blend effortlessly with their surroundings. Yet unlike their ancient counterparts, the ceramics’ sharp, detailed textures evoke the vibrancy and clarity that Roman sculptures once possessed.

In front of the Consuls’ Cenotaph lies an open-air space, temporarily home to eight towering black ceramic sculptures. Each is a combination of textures, surfaces, and patterns that, from afar, resemble tree bark. Nearby, a lone yellow ceramic piece stands out like a beam of sunlight.

Engaging with Ceramics Inside Église Saint-Honorat

Inside the Église Saint-Honorat, seven works are distributed across various rooms. These include resin portraits, bronze sculptures, and delicate paper-based works, too fragile to endure the elements. Through a contemporary archaeology approach, Formica juxtaposes modern themes with traditional techniques, and classical motifs with contemporary media. Yet tradition remains at the core of his practice. It’s this synthesis that earned him a place within Les Alyscamps.

“Though drawing has always remained his guiding force, over the years, he has thrown himself into painting, bronze collage, engraving, ceramics… Each piece belonging to a vast, multiplied, almost obsessive series. For him, no gesture stands alone. This iterative process is not repetition for the artist. Instead, his vast collections of paintings, sculptures, and uncovered papers , emerging from different periods, form a unified whole, reflecting a relationship with time, space, and memory, both human and environmental,” writes Florence Reckinger Taddeï.

By blending the old with the new, Formica preserves both history and its lingering effects on us. In a time when reverence for ancestral spaces may fade, “Panta Rhei” rekindles their presence—reminding visitors that memory and spirit endure through art.

Who is Jean-Pierre Formica

Jean-Pierre Formica is a multidisciplinary artist born in 1946 in Uchaud, Gard, in southern France. He is an alumnus of the renowned École des Beaux-Arts and a former faculty member at the École Nationale d’Architecture du Val-de-Seine. Today, he splits his time between the sunny streets of Arles and the rainy cityscape of Paris.

Since the 1970s, Mediterranean culture has been a consistent source of inspiration for Formica; its mythology, history, and natural environment inform much of his work. Over the decades, he has explored a wide range of media, including painting, drawing, watercolor, charcoal, engraving, ceramics, sculpture, and textiles. In Paris, he notably collaborated with Christian Lacroix on several haute couture collections.

Despite this wide ranging practice, Formica continues to identify primarily as a painter, one whose work investigates the substance and materiality of images. Like many artists, he has gravitated toward sculpture in his later years. His post-2000 works prominently feature terracotta and bronze, with surfaces formed through an imprint process that gives the pieces a weathered, water-worn quality. He calls these works “new nature,” hybrid forms that merge the human body with the natural world.

In his most recent series, Papiers Révélés, Formica brings together his identities as a painter, engraver, and sculptor. Incisions in the page reveal layers of color beneath the surface, transforming the two-dimensional into sculptural form. The technique references linocut printing—known for its reproducibility—yet each cut and tear is unique, subverting repetition with singularity.