Biography

 

Rémy Tassou's portrait (2019)

 

So this is it.

I was born in 1955 and studied in Nantes. I quickly went to ESC Business School where I was told about free enterprise. I thought it was a way to freedom so I started my businesses.

First by opening an insect-based food restaurant in Angers. We served the dishes on glass tables that housed spiders or reptiles. We also had a butterfly tree. But in the first winter the electrical system went out and the insects died.

Then I went to Dubai where I opened “French Furniture” a furniture and decoration store in the Regence and Louis XV styles.

Three years later I return to France and I become a show producer. I organise tours for Nougaro, Ferré and especially Higelin. In 1985 I quit the show business. I am 30 years old, two children and I realise that as an entrepreneur I did not find the freedom I had dreamed of. Constraints everywhere.

Then I join an insurance company in Paris at the same time I start sculpting the Arman way: assembly and accumulations. In 1995 I create a sculpture based on electronic components that I call Cybertrash. I am immediately welcomed at the Arnoux Gallery in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and this marks the beginning of 25 years of creation in this style!

First in my one-bedroom flat in Aubervilliers then in Paris in an underground parking lot at Place d’Italie. In 2002 I turn professional and move to Grasse on the Cote d’Azur. I get permanent exhibitions in Saint-Paul-de-Vence and Monaco. In 2007 I have 4 assistants and sales are rapidly getting up. Russians, Americans, Germans, Swiss, Dutch, even buyers from singapore … Everyone wants to get some!

Then comes September 2008, the Madoff scandal and the beginning of the financial crisis. Everything stops suddenly. No more sales. I take action by setting more exhibitions but nothing helps. Everything is blocked. In early 2011, financially exhausted, I take refuge in the family home of Nantes where I set up my workshop.

With time, little by little, the market picks up again and customers come back. Today feels like before. I have assistants again, the sculptures are a little better and above all I still have faith … I still strongly believe.

Nantes (France),  May 2019.