In the Sagazan family, the father is an important figure. His famous daughter, Zaho de Sagazan, is not the only prominent member of the clan living in Saint-Nazaire to have excelled in her artistic practice. A love for creation that the singer, who has recently found great love, has likely inherited from her father, Olivier de Sagazan. In a profile published by the website L’internaute, more details are revealed about the artistic practice of this mysterious man. The 65-year-old artist, born in Brazzaville, Congo, and from a former French bourgeois family, originally trained as a biologist before fully transitioning to visual arts in the early 1990s. Olivier Le Moniès de Sagazan, his full name, made a name for himself in contemporary art through performances where he transforms into a clay man.
In 2024, the visual artist presented the documentary “L’homme de boue,” which showcased his unique practice of transforming his body into clay in performances. In 1998, his piece “Transfiguration” gained worldwide recognition: during 350 performances played in 25 different countries, the artist methodically covered his body and face with wet earth to reveal himself, transitioning from human to animal, and from animal to unsettling hybrid creatures. A unique approach that allowed the family man to collaborate with renowned artists.
Olivier de Sagazan collaborated with Mylène Farmer and FKA Twigs. His artistic practice attracted many enthusiasts in the music and film industry. In 2011, director Ron Fricke filmed him for “Samsara.” In 2016, British singer FKA Twigs, then in a relationship with Twilight actor Robert Pattinson, engaged the Loire-Atlantique resident for an immersive project. The following year, fashion designers Gareth Pugh and Nick Knight collaborated with the French artist for a fashion film.
His most prestigious collaboration remains with Mylène Farmer. In 2012, the close friend of Alain Chamfort worked with the visual artist for her music video “A l’ombre,” where Olivier de Sagazan created a “troubling visual universe where his body transformation techniques interact with the singer’s dark and poetic world,” as reported by L’internaute.
The father of the interpreter of “La symphonie des éclairs,” who staged absurd performances in 2014 and 2017 to denounce the rise of the National Front in the polls, jokes with our colleagues about the creative effervescence that reigns in his family: “We talk about it incessantly among ourselves. As soon as one of us invents something, we share it, we discuss it,” he says. He is currently touring throughout France with his new creation, “Toujours jamais,” where he questions his artistic practice over 35 years.
Who is the dancer and choreographer Leïla Ka, Zaho de Sagazan’s older sister? If Zaho needs no introduction, celebrated at the Victoires de la musique 2024, we can mention her cousin, Lorraine de Sagazan, or her older sister, known professionally as Leïla Ka. The former has established herself as a director, while the latter has made a name in the world of contemporary dance. Trained at CentQuatre-Paris and La Garance, national scene of Cavaillon, the thirty-year-old gained recognition with her first solo, “Pode Ser,” in 2018. Primed six times internationally, it has been performed over 200 times since its creation. Two years later, she created a second piece, the duo “C’est toi qu’on adore,” then in 2022, the solo “Se faire la belle” awarded the “Revelation Choreographic” prize by the Syndicate of Critics. In the same year, she won the first prize at the Danse Elargie competition at the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris with “Bouffées,” a piece for five performers.
As a choreographer for Beyoncé, the César Awards, her younger sister Zaho de Sagazan, and the National Ballet of Chile, she stands out with a style influenced by urban themes. On February 3, she will present her fourth piece, “Maldonne,” for which she won the Danse Elargie competition at the Théâtre de la Ville de Paris and was nominated for the International Dance Prize at Saddlers Wells in London, on the Olympia stage. “Already performed over 110 times, Maldonne imposes an intimate and political writing, as radical as it is poetic,” the venue’s site specifies. There is no doubt that talent runs in the veins of the Sagazan family.
