Kazbard

Alexandre Drabzak
Artist Designer

Self-taught, curious, and passionate, I view my work as a continuous exploration. A biologist by training, I expanded into design, conception, and artistic creation, driven by an instinct that left me no other choice. With an adventurous spirit, I set no boundaries to the fields in which I express myself, always maintaining a fundamental connection with nature.

The creative process, whatever it may be, must have meaning. In this regard, my work always begins by immersing myself in the values of my clients, as well as the human, cultural, and environmental context in which my designs must integrate. To disregard either, for me, is nonsensical. Only then does my very instinctive and sensitive part come into play, to fertilize the existing with my imagination and extract a synthesis, the fruit of which will be destined to find its independence and foster community.

Working Together: The Creative Process

My creativity is largely intuitive. The creations I value most arise from letting go and have appeared to me as clear, almost obvious images. In my approach, there is no intellectual research in the strict sense, and any attempt at post-hoc rationalization seems artificial to me. However, there is a process I can describe.

Essentially, it begins with building a subtle connection with you. This connection allows me to integrate, beyond the subject of the commission itself, something that belongs to you, something you may not express, but which I will have perceived.

This is why the relationship we build, the trust granted, and shared values are central to my work.

At the same time, the project sparks a personal desire, perhaps for a specific material, color, style, or dimension. And when all these elements meet, a synthesis imposes itself upon me, uniting them; this is the birth of the object, new and independent.

I work with partners from very different worlds, sometimes perceived as immiscible. Yet, an original and fundamental thread runs through them: humanity. My creations seek to make this connection perceptible, without forcing it, without explaining it.

I expect nothing less than the appropriation of my work. When, beyond aesthetics and functionality, I see the work transcend boundaries and foster a form of sensitive community, I find my greatest reward.

I believe that the most accurate expression, the one that achieves consensus, is often the simplest, the most spontaneous. Not out of a rejection of intellect, but because instinct brings us back to something more essential.

Creation is always a selfish act, but if it’s only that, it holds little interest for me. Creation, like life, only has meaning if it transmits something.

If the work does not generate emotion, if it does not momentarily hold one’s breath, it transmits nothing, it reflects nothing. Carl Jung spoke of our reflection in the beings that attract us; similarly, I feel that an artistic work is a mirror in which a part of ourselves can be reflected. This is what touches us, and it is this subtle and silent encounter that I seek to caress.

Profile

Holds a Master’s degree in “Environmental Issues Expertise”.
Holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture.
Environmental consultant and ecologist.
Urban planner-environmentalist. Development of Local Urban Plans (PLU), Territorial Diagnostics, Development Plans, and Master Plans.
Project Manager for tourism development projects. Public and private project management contracts in the building and landscape sectors.
Designer and Eco-designer.
Company Manager.
Winner of the Talents 2007 competition for business creation in Midi-Pyrénées.

Career Path

2002: Obtained a Master’s degree in “Environmental Issues Expertise”.
2002-2003: Teacher (Ministry of Agriculture).
2003-2006: Project Manager at the Natural History Museum of Toulouse.
2006-2018: Founded the consulting firm Génie nature SARL. Manager from 2006 to 2016, Director from 2016 to 2018.
2008-2015: Founded Pôle environnement SARL. Manager from 2008 to 2015.
2020: Bachelor’s degree in Architecture – ENSA de Toulouse

Being Self-Taught is an Odyssey

Being self-taught is not the easiest choice. Although, in a way, I didn’t have that choice! Something other than ambition pushed me towards creation, far from my acquired knowledge and initial training. With a master’s degree in biology, I felt very comfortable in the “living world,” which remains a true passion for me. But another part of me called me elsewhere.

After exploring teaching, I joined the Natural History Museum of Toulouse as a botanist to lead the implementation of an educational garden project (the Museum’s gardens) that my friend Boris Presseq and I, then students, had envisioned a few years earlier. From then on, I began to pick up a drawing pencil to design.

Once the project was completed, the site constructed, and the teams in place, I eventually left this structure to create my own company as an ecological expert. The managerial role assigned to me then interested me far less than my independence.

The rest of my professional experience can be likened to an odyssey where the gods of reason and conditioning battled against an inner Odysseus, who had but one goal (which I only understood at the end): to find his Ithaca, the realm of my sovereignty, freedom, and imagination.

Since then, I have had the opportunity to work on projects of all sizes, ranging from a private garden to the territory of a regional natural park, and of all natures: from the creation of objects for mass distribution to the establishment of urban planning schemes and regulations. I have worked with clients—whom I prefer to call partners—from all walks of life, whether political, religious, or associative, and at very varied scales, from individuals to major institutional structures, such as Departmental Councils. I can say that each project was a formative adventure.

During this odyssey, it was difficult for me to embrace my status as a creator, which remained confidential and marginalized behind my diplomas and expert status. But “Odysseus” proved strong and persistent, eventually overcoming the gods and finding his island.

It was only after more than ten years that the inner journey came to an end, finally allowing me to consider myself, and openly embrace, my role as a conceptualizer, designer, and artist; all with humility, simply in light of the journey accomplished, happy to return to this native land where I am sovereign.

I did all this without formal training, without apprenticeship, without “tutorials” or webinars; I didn’t even read a design book. When I entered the National School of Architecture in Toulouse, at the age of 42, I didn’t know that I was already at the end of this journey, but I quickly understood that I was only there for a piece of paper. My true learning was already accomplished, supported by a spontaneity and confidence that came from deep within me.