Ceramic Totems – “Japan 1968” Exhibition

In December 2025, on the occasion of the exhibition “Japan 1968”, Retour De Voyage Gallery presents an original series of seven totemic sculptures created by Pierre Sgamma.

Ceramics conceived by Pierre Sgamma

Conceived as a coherent ensemble, this series reflects a desire to close the year on a joyful, free and slightly offbeat note, without abandoning the depth of the sculptural gesture.

Inspired by Japan-inflected imagery, shamanism, and a form of personal mythology, these ceramic statues fully embrace a playful dimension: covered with flowers, signs and colours, the totems open wide, round eyes onto the world.

Pierre Sgamma invents a personal mythology populated by benevolent guardians, floral spirits and deities that bring a smile. One moves from one figure to the next as if through a strange and joyful tale, where the sacred finally agrees not to take itself too seriously.

Hikari, the Totem of Multiple Seasons

is an ancient presence, almost cosmic in nature. It is said to have been shaped at the dawn of a vanished world, when a greater sun still governed the passage of time. From that lost star, Hikari retains luminous scars: rays etched into its very substance, the silent pulse of a clock that measures not hours, but the cycles of existence.

Beneath the patinated enamel and golden highlights, floral motifs emerge and fade away, like overlapping seasons. Nothing here is fixed: light reveals, and light erases.

Its eyes, nearly hidden, do not turn toward the viewer. They pierce through the visible, probing what lies beyond the layers of the world — where time is no longer counted, but felt.