Original

“A world comes alive before our eyes, accompanied by the sound of the electric motor and the wind moving through the sculptures. There is no longer a Black Box, no UCLy, not even sculpture. The artist’s year of work that went into creating it is forgotten. All that remains is the magic of an imaginary yet living world.”

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Eric Soudan. Mag2Lyon avril 2023/ Read the article

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Spectacular

“The result is both spectacular and moving in this former prison site, with all these figures seemingly engaged in a somewhat futile quest for emancipation, condemned to endlessly repeat the same gesture (…) A long-term body of work that resonates particularly strongly here, in the city of the Lumière brothers.”

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Guillaume Beraud, Le Progrès de Lyon, avril 2023/ Read the article

 

 

 

Incredible

“To make her films, Emilie Tolot uses a technique known as stop motion and arms herself with incredible patience. To create one second of animated film, 15 images are needed, representing a full day’s work. Each image corresponds to a position of the sculpture, which is photographed and then assembled into a film. With no trickery or editing effects.”

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A.M. Lyon Capitale Octobre 2020 / Read the article 

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Magical

“With her small moving figures, Lyon-based sculptor Emilie Tolot intertwines bodies and art forms with great poetry (…) A magical world that captivates the viewer (…) By combining sculpture and animated film, Emilie Tolot extends her sculptural gesture and brings matter to life. As in cinema, she draws a storyboard detailing every movement. Characters and sequences full of poetry emerge from her hands. Like a magic lantern, her miniature theatres come to life, opening onto a moving world. A meticulous process requiring great patience.”

 

Odile Morain 
 France Info
, 29 septembre 2020/ Read the article

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Fascinating

“She no longer simply sculpts figures; she also makes them dance in stop-motion animated films. A colossal undertaking: fifteen images are needed to produce one second of film, representing a full day’s work.

She achieves this using plasticine, a firm modelling material that allows her to modify the figures’ poses for each photograph.”

“The exhibition also evokes the origins of cinema, with a reinterpretation of Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, previously exhibited in the Premier Film hangar during the Lumière Festival. Her agile and poetic figures are fascinating. One would gladly remain inside Emilie Tolot’s giant Black Box.”

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Isabelle Brione, Le Progrès de Lyon 20 février 2021/ Read the article

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Compelling

“An exhibition that proves to be at once unconventional, unusual and fascinating. Unconventional because sculpting in clay and taking an interest in the earliest films do not necessarily follow the spirit of the times. Unprecedented, for that very reason. And fascinating because of the artist’s personality and the qualities of boundless patience, unwavering determination and meticulousness that her work reveals.”

“At first glance, there is nothing revolutionary about it: Emilie Tolot sculpts small clay figures, less than 20 centimetres tall.

But this is where things become original — and, above all, deeply moving. The figures begin to move, jump, run, fight with one another, embrace… in a word, they come to life. She gives each of them a personality of its own, then stages them in a small theatre, animates them and films them as well… What interests her is movement.”

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​Trina Mounier, Arkuchi Novembre 2020/ Read the article

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Moving

“It all begins with a long corridor where a block of clay stands at the origin of her creations. Then a hundred small sculptures are set free, walking and jumping across a stretch of sand. The visitor then enters a giant box where the artist presents her work: twelve sequences staged in Black Boxes combining sculptures and animated films.

The screening of a short animated sculpture film brings the journey to a close. A way of sharing not only emotion, but also the magic of the artistic process.”

 

Brigitte Honegger, Nouveau Lyon/ Read the article

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Poetic 

“These poetic stories, in which the arts intertwine, Emilie Tolot will one day tell on the big screen.

From sculpture to cinema, quite naturally… She is considering a 50-minute film paying tribute to the seventh art, in which she would recreate key scenes from great films.”

 

Sylvie Boschiero, France 3, 30 septembre 2020/ read the article/ Watch the France 3 report

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Enigmatic

«“At 35, Emilie Tolot admits to having only one dream: ‘To continue.’ And if pressed for more, she calmly repeats, ‘to continue’, with an imperturbable air, blue eyes and a small enigmatic smile. Nothing and no one will stop her hand, or the movement she imposes upon matter.”

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Philippe Brunet-Lecomte, mytoc.fr Novembre 2016/read the article

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