Peppone | Contemporary Artist: Artworks & Biography

Situated in an industrial zone at the foot of Luberon, Provence, Peppone’s workshop (pseudonym Christophe Tixier) is akin to Ali Baba’s cave, as the sculptor is also a habitual collector. In the rather dense and informative bric-a- brac coexists thousands of recycled parts and above all nearly 500 Tintin albums, which feed the author’s daily creation. Peppone’s parents, teachers, taught him that sharing was the best gift of life. His first copies of Tintin came from his father, which he inherited after his death. Then he completed his collection by frequenting garage sales, the sales of public libraries and even through new albums brought to him by friends and strangers. The artist uses this accumulation of papers to imagine resin shapes in bright and variegated colours. They are imbued with a strong pop symbolism which reminds him of childhood and innocence. The characters of Hergé are not his only creations since Star Wars, and his superheroes such as Darth Vador, Walt Disney and his eternal Mickey Mouse, the Hulk, Zorro and Spiderman have also inspired him. He often says that the man is the only living being to know that he is going to die and that, to escape his condition, he reproduces, communicates and dreams; maintaining a kind of cyclical link between past, present and future. It is by cutting through this legacy of paper that Tintin took shape and flight. This figure has become a pillar of balance that allows him to cultivate the father’s bond…