Inside The Art-Filled Home Of Arik Levy and Zoé Ouvrier

The couple are the latest in a long line of creatives to establish their studio and home in a quaint medieval village in the South of France.

Saint-Paul-de-Vence, or simply Saint Paul, is a picturesque French village with a heritage that dates back more than a thousand years. A dizzying constellation of artists, actors, writers and musicians have clustered here since 1920. The village square, edged with century-old plane trees, has seen celebrities the likes of Yves Montand and Lino Ventura play pétanque.

The world-famous La Colombe d’Or, the village inn, has hosted 20th-century greats such as Sartre, Matisse, Braque, Léger and Folon. From artists Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall to author James Baldwin and poet Jacques Prévert, Saint Paul’s luminous, lavender-scented air, balmy weather and the Mediterranean profusion of vines and olive trees have been irresistible to all.

Multidisciplinary artist Arik Levy and his wife, fellow artist Zoé Ouvrier, are the latest to succumb to the charms of Saint Paul. After saying goodbye to Paris, Arik’s home for more than three decades, the couple set up home in a stunning Saint Paul property, the former residence of prima French ballerina Sylvie Guillem. Its expansive, light-filled rehearsal studio is now the couple’s work space.

“The light here is incredible – it is why so many artists love working here,” Arik tells us on a warm summer evening. “The second reason is I am from Israel and Zoé is from the South of France – our DNA craves warm weather. We wanted to move away from the grey coldness of Paris. The third aspect is we are in the middle of a vibrant art destination that stretches from Marseille to Monaco.”

Never having spent more than a night in Saint Paul, the couple took a giant leap of faith uprooting themselves from the established Parisian artistic ecosystem. “When we arrived here, we did not know anything,” Arik admits. “Not even where to buy groceries. Such a move is challenging at any point in life, because you have to relearn everything.” Grasping local nuances and assimilating into a new culture that was different from the one they left behind, striking roots in Saint Paul was not so hard after all. “With our daughters’ friends’ parents, and the many Parisian expatriates here, we managed to create a network quickly,” Zoé chips in.

When pandemic lockdowns came in place, the couple became well acquainted with their new habitat, understanding how the surrounding landscape changed over the days. From growing their own vegetables to pressing their own olive oil, they learned how to sustain themselves off the land. The luxury of space was liberating for Arik, who could create bigger sculptures in outdoor settings.

This spring saw the opening of Arik Levy Sculpture Park, adjacent to the home. Secreted in olive groves with spectacular views across the village, the park spans 12,000 square metres of lush gardens filled with lavender, cypress and fig trees; an idyllic setting for Arik’s monumental, nature-inspired sculptural works. Open all year round on appointment, the eponymous park offers insights into a multifaceted oeuvre.

The manufactured and man-made intertwine seamlessly with what is natural and organic. Having their home open to visitors requires discipline, Arik explains: “It demands accepting that part of our house will be open to outsiders. Our work is everywhere, indoors and outdoors, making it a different viewing experience for visitors than a gallery.

They can see a piece, and how it would look in any part of the home. So we have to be super tidy. We only welcome curated visits and most are people who know our work. We enjoy welcoming them, showing our work, and seeing how they react. We are happy, serene and in harmony with our space.”

Zoé and Arik share their home with their daughters, aged 15 and 12. “From having to constantly childproof everything, they have now learned to navigate the house and proudly show off the art,” the couple expresses. “They love bringing their friends over. When we have too many visitors, the girls take them on guided tours of the park.”

For Zoé, an intuitive decorator, function comes first. Objects are juxtaposed in unexpected ways. Arik, on the other hand, confesses he is a very bad decorator. “Even though some people think I’m a good designer,” he laughs. “Decoration is not a part of my vocabulary, but my strength is the art of arranging objects. That makes everything work somehow.”

Their approach to furnishing the home is an organic, ongoing process, a constant stream of playing with art and objects that arrive on an ongoing basis from their other home in the historical French region of Burgundy.

“It is like a three-dimensional puzzle: tactile, visual, emotional and inspirational,” Arik shares. “When I walk around our house with visitors, clients, or friends, they always say, ‘Hold on, there is so much to see here’. We put together objects, art and design like landmarks around the house, jumping like a bee from one to another and telling their stories.”

Even the coat hangers and door handles are now being changed as the couple likes to make their own. “Many of the things here are the way we like them and how we use them,” shares Zoé. “When people come and open the door, they do then look at the handle, because it feels different. So we create a connection; a dialogue between us, the way we set up the house, and the people who come in. There is no monologue of decoration, but there is a prologue of emotions.”

Both artists agree that their Saint Paul home has not intrinsically changed their art, but it has facilitated the physical coordinates. “I can work on a 50-foot sculpture if I want to,” smiles Arik. “It is far from the aggression of big cities. This place gives us space and that affects how it is transmitted in our art.”

Arik’s signature large-scale sculptures in industrial media such as steel, bronze, and glass demand attention as artificial, manufactured objects inserted in natural habitats, yet they merge with the environment like rocks or logs would. His creative process is at once scientific and experimental. “I research at once social codes, psychotherapy and science in relation to nature and super nature. I look way forward, and way backwards, trying to identify the thin connecting lines among these worlds,” – a philosophy that has brought this abode to life, making way for history and innovative beauty to collide.

From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia Interiors’ Summer 2022 Issue