As part of its Opus Memoria collection, Rinck unveils a new collaboration with artist Simon Buret: La Nuit, a monumental, sculptural, poetic bronze statue.
La Nuit: A Work by Simon Buret for Rinck
© Florian Touzet
A SHARED VISION ENGENDERS AN ARTISTIC ENCOUNTER
It was while Rinck’s CEO and Artistic Director Valentin Goux was conducting visual research – somewhere between aesthetic exploration and a quest for inspiration – that he discovered the work of artist Simon Buret on Instagram. Drawn to Simon’s pictorial sensibility, Valentin acquired one of the artist’s first paintings. A few years later, a collaboration naturally took shape. “I greatly admire the work of artists. When I admire something, I want to collaborate,” Valentin shares. Thus, the Opus Memoria collection, conceived as tangible culmination of an imaginary artistic life, found a living extension in Simon Buret: a complete artist, nourished by music, painting, and sculpture—a fictional alter ego that took human form.
“I greatly admire the work of artists. When I admire something, I want to collaborate”
Sketchbook © Simon Buret
© Florian Touzet
CARTE BLANCHE AND FREEDOM OF FORM
“I make to understand,” says Simon. From the very first discussions, he was invited to dream big. Rinck gave him unfettered access to its workshops, its savoir-faire, its artisans. The objective was to create a work of art, not a functional object. Simon eagerly accepted the challenge. He wanted to shape the material from its original magma, to forge a link between his world and Rinck’s, without limiting himself to ornament. The notion of a sculpture swiftly took hold.
He chose a starting point inspired by the company’s bronzes and ornaments: the acanthus leaf, a classic motif in the Rinck décor, one which he appropriated and morphed into a personal language. The statue’s body became a hybrid creature with an ambivalent presence, hands crossed over its chest that open like wings. It appeals and repels, entices and confuses.
© Florian Touzet
© Florian Touzet
FROM CLAY TO BRONZE: A HUMAN ADVENTURE
Alongside Loïc Barbedienne, one of Rinck’s ornamental sculptors, Simon discovered working with clay. He chose to use a blunt pencil to sculpt, using primitive, instinctive movements. “I wanted to capture an emotion of edginess and excitement, like a silent scream.” The model arose from this controlled urgency. The final statue was hardly retouched, remaining true to its first breath of existence.
At the art foundry, Simon witnessed the birth of his first bronze sculpture, a moving experience for him with a striking result: a work imbued with intimate symbols and universal resonance. Simon scattered childhood memories throughout the piece, moments shared with his grandmother, inspiration from the Greek islands he so loves…but there is, too, a call to mystery.
© Florian Touzet
LA NUIT
The sculpture, christened La Nuit, embodies what the artist describes as the “night of oneself”—that invisible territory between emotion and the unconscious, between two viewpoints, between two worlds. For Simon, the night is a space for listening within, a moment when thoughts rise to the surface like buried echoes. “I think I make art to understand,” he says. “The night is that moment suspended in time when everything becomes more porous.” This sculpture is the palpable embodiment of this. With its folded wings and silent gesture, it seems to contain a very personal story, a mute appeal to look within. It also evokes a kind of expectation, of invisible transformation—as though, within its mass, it bore the transition from one state to another, a journey. Every detail, from the tilt of the head to the sculpted hands, conveys an inner turmoil, a gentle tautness between surrender and tension, contemplation and elevation. La Nuit is more than a figure: It is an emotion frozen in bronze.
© Florian Touzet
© Florian Touzet
© Florian Touzet
Unveiled in Paris
La Nuit will be unveiled in Paris from June 11 to 14, 2025, at La Galerie Rinck, as part of the “Le Carré Fait son Musée!” event hosted by the Carré Rive Gauche organization, which brings together nearly sixty of the quarter’s most prestigious galleries. For this art extravaganza, the sculpture will be presented to the public for the first time, providing a glimpse into the artist’s inner world. This rare piece is being released in eight numbered copies and enriches Rinck’s Opus Memoria collection with a phantastic, sensitive spirit. With La Nuit, Rinck reasserts its calling: to create a dialogue between the arts, our dreams, and the act of creation.
Throne Armchair
Price on demand
Opus Memoria Totem Lamp
Price on demand
Standing Desk
Price on demand
Cheval Glass
Price on demand
Opus Memoria Rug
Price on demand
Opus Memoria Table Lamp
Price on demand
Opus Memoria Chair
Price on demand
Discover other artistic collaborations
Dialogue at the Crossroads of Art
In this joint interview, the artists Simon Buret and Valentin Goux, President and Artistic Director of Rinck, reflect on their first encounter, the inspirations that shaped their collaboration, and the artistic and technical choices that led to the creation of La Nuit — a sculptural work emblematic of the Opus Memoria collection. A conversation in two voices, where poetry meets craftsmanship, echoing the spirit of this singular piece.
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