Process of the sculpture Cape for Camille 2018

(from left): artist Ida Retz Wessberg, Franco Turchi, Malene Bang og Pontus Kjerrman).

Photo: Ida Retz Wessberg.

Ida Retz Wessberg(b. 1986, DK) is a young Danish sculptor.

She has a critical and historical approach to her practice, working with themes such as the body, female narratives and immateriality. Retz Wessberg uses traditional sculptural materials such as plaster and bronze, as well as modern materials such as Air Bubble Wrap. She has a particular interest in circulation, circuits and air. As an example, she has produced numerous sculptures and casts from puffer jackets. She examines the volume of the jacket, constituted by the encapsulated air held in rectangular bulges, as a contemporary uniform, concealing the unique body of the individual wearing it. Retz Wessberg is concerned with how the history and perceived values of materials, as well as their internal hierarchies, affect the way we encounter sculpture.

Latest she has done a series of site specific water sculptures, investigating the water's circuits, the symbolizm of water in our cultures, the necessity of water for the ecosystem and our survival and how people capitalise on nature.

Retz Wessberg graduated from The School of Sculpture Charlottenborg, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2018. She has exhibited at Overgaden Institute for Contemporary Art, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, CCA Andratx (ES), The Museum of Contemporary Art (Roskilde, DK) among other places.

In addition to her Artistic Practice, Retz Wessberg also conducts Artistic Research on the French sculptress Camille Claudel (1864-1943). Since 2017, Retz Wessberg is therefore often in Paris, where she collaborates with experts in the field at The Research Center at Musée Rodin Paris and Musée d'Orsay. Retz Wessberg has published several texts and given talks about her research. Most recently, she has published a text on Camille Claudel seen in the light of today's #metoo movement. The article was published in Danish at the art site www.idoart.dk and can be read here

An introduction to Camille Claudel and how Retz Wessberg is inspired by her in her artworks can be read in English here