When Art opens up to a world…of silence

At 56 years old, Jean-Jacques has all that he could wish for: he has just opened his own workshop.  It's rather out of the ordinary.  Because the man is hard of hearing.  For him, this workshop is not only a means of expressing his art but it's also an incredible communication tool. 

The creative art workshop is situated in a small house, overlooking a very beautiful garden.  With a table and a striped umbrella, all that is needed to host students and customers alike. 

Everyone is welcome.  Besides, the workshop has been designed with very strict standards of accessibility for disabled people.  Wheelchairs can move freely.  Jean-Jacques Geurrini adapts his course according to the needs of the students: for example for the partly sighted person, he creates different sounds of the terracotta with a pebble.     

If the workshop is aimed at the disabled, are the able-bodied people invited to attend the courses within a convivial atmosphere, - like the sun which beams in the heart of Jean-Jacques Guerrini-.   

 "Where there is a will there is a way"

The man came to Réunion Island in 2003.  At that time, he was still a sign language teacher.  He works a few years at the "Ressource" centre, before retiring.       

But Jean-Jacques gets bored: he is not the kind of twiddling his thumbs.  It's in this way that the idea of establishing his own art company crossed his mind.  A project that is far from being easy.  First of all, he needs to move, undertake works and organise the funding.  A further problem: the season is quite humid in the East of the department.  And as you know, the clay does not fit with the rain.  But, Jean-Jacques Guerrini clings on to this idea:  "where there is a will there is way," says he.   

His determination pays off: the workshop opens its doors in 2007 and Jean-Jacques Guerrini continues to paint and sculpt. 

The artist has a partiality for knife painting, pottery and enamel and as a principal theme, nature.  "I have a great respect for nature, he points out.  I reproduce what I see and then, I invent the colours."

Each piece of work is unique:  you can mix the different clays, use the technique of raku to give a particular aspect to the work or dip it into the enamel.