Victor Cadene

At the age of 13, Victor Cadene met artist Edwige Delcambre, who taught him how to work with colour, as well as the history of furniture and the decorative arts. She also encouraged him to go to the School of Applied Arts in Valencia, the only school he ever attended. Victor subsequently moved into scenography and interior design. He now creates miniature worlds out of paper using the techniques of drawing and collage. These compositions are, as he describes, “sets from my imagination”. His inspirations for these fantasy worlds include Matisse, the timeless and colourful city of Milan, Neapolitan churches, Livio de Simone and the 2009 film Amore.

Each element of Victor Cadene’s creations is drawn by hand before being cut with a scalpel, refined, retouched, positioned and finally glued. The techniques of drawing on paper and collage allow Victor to build his creations until he finally finds a perfect balance. “It is an intuitive, spontaneous and ornamental process.” Victor’s drawings become models that are brought to life through his decorative projects. He came across this technique naturally, building on one experience to reach another.

Victor Cadene grew up in a house lost within the woods. He considers the silence and the beauty of nature to have given him a contemplative character, which allowed him to observe and draw inspiration from every minute detail. He draws inspiration from the colours and opulence of patterns within the works of Henri Matisse. In particular, he likes Matisse’s oriental scenes, the Odalisque with raised arms and especially the woman in a purple coat. He is also influenced by multiple other historic and contemporary sources, such as the French weekly magazine L’Illustration published between 1843 and 1944, the ceramic works of the French Drôme Provencale region, Neapolitan churches and films like Amore released in 2009.

Magnae Chartae Exhibition