Gerald Vatrin

In 2021, Daum initiated a collaboration with the French glass artist, Gérald Vatrin, sculptor of light and master of blown glass. Fascinated by molten material, Vatrin relentlessly explores the metamorphoses of glass, which he sculpts and shapes like a living material. This encounter with the Nancy crystal factory, guardian of ancestral know-how, was a natural fit. Together, they gave birth to the Yeelen collection, a term meaning "light" in Bambara, the language spoken in Mali, where the artist lived for fourteen years.

With Yeelen solaire and Yeelen azur , Daum and Gérald Vatrin capture the magical moment when matter captures light. Each piece, blown and then sculpted by hand, contains bubbles, flows, and breaths, like so many traces of a frozen movement. The works seem animated by an inner breath, vibrating with solar or aquatic chromatic energies, placed on a brass or stainless steel base like contemporary talismans.

Gérald Vatrin's style is characterized by an organic and instinctive approach to materials. He draws his inspiration from nature, ancestral cultures, and the world's spiritualities. His work combines technical mastery and poetic sensitivity, in a unique plastic language where the glass seems to breathe. Between fluid abstraction and biomorphic forms, his sculptures invite meditative contemplation, evoking primordial energies, transformation, and the memory of gesture.

Produced in limited editions of eight pieces, the Yeelen sculptures embody a rare alchemy between the artist's gesture and the unique know-how of the manufacturer. This collaboration is an ode to light, fluidity, and the intangible beauty of glass.