Lucile Gracile
What’s your name and where are you based?
I’m Lucile Gracile, I live and work in Paris
Can you describe your practice in a few words?
I explore archetypal forms, mythology, and imagination through sculpture, creating objects that blur the boundaries between the familiar and the unknown.
How did you begin working with Ceramics?
Actually, I’m completely self-taught and started working with clay in 2022. It immediately felt like the right path for me, and I’ve been absolutely obsessed with it ever since!
Your forms are made of repeated gestures, with stacked spheres, ruffled edges like a shell, clay draped as though it were fabric, and small creatures clinging onto surfaces. Where did this imagery come from?
When I construct a piece, I approach it as a form of narrative, almost like a hieroglyphic language. Each symbol connects with another to tell a story rooted in my beliefs and personal imagination. It’s also a somewhat private way of sharing my emotions. In a way, I particularly love the idea that these symbols can be interpreted differently by each viewer, as if they take on a life of their own beyond me.
Your largest piece is called ‘Retable de l’éternel retour.’ A retable is an altarpiece, and eternal return is Nietzsche’s idea that everything in a life recurs endlessly. It’s two and a half meters tall, ceramic panels on steel, with two snakes eating their own tails. Can you tell us more about this piece?
The piece starts from the idea that we all carry the weight of our childhood with us. Although we may learn to conceal it as we grow into adulthood, these memories and wounds continue to shape our thoughts, actions, and unconscious patterns. Rather than trying to hide or overcome this “inner child,” I wanted to build a mausoleum for it—a space to honour what has shaped us and acknowledge the complexity we all carry. The two snakes, endlessly consuming their own tails, evoke this cycle of memory and repetition, while the altarpiece-like form turns the piece into a kind of ritual or memorial to our shared vulnerabilities.
Can you tell us about another specific piece you’ve made recently that felt especially personal?
I started a new series this summer called “(My) Heart Oscillations.” It explores love from the perspective of a hypersensitive woman and the lingering effects of past wounds. It looks at the disconnect, in today’s society, between the often intense and turbulent emotions we experience internally and what we are expected to present when dating, in a world of situationships and social media. The metaphor for this idea is represented by Foucault’s pendulum, oscillating between what is visible at first glance and what gradually reveals itself over time.
You’ve spoken about a society that shuts down imagination once childhood ends, one that favors efficiency instead. How do you protect that in your own life and how could we as a society do things differently?
By spending a lot of time in my studio! More seriously, I think we should make more room for compassion—for our failures, flaws, doubts, and those of others. I also think it’s important to remember our dreams, quite literally as well: our own dreams, not the ones society has constructed for us.
What’s a piece you haven’t been able to make yet, regardless of scale, cost, or the time it would take?
The piece Retable de l’éternel retour was conceived as a triptych from the very beginning. As soon as I have the necessary funding (and space), I intend to complete it. It’s my big project for 2027.
Whats something that’s currently inspiring you?
As always, the beautiful magic of our existence on Earth, and what we create in our attempt to find some kind of answer to it.
Where can people find you?
You can find me on my insta @lucile_gracile or in my workshop my dog Albert
