André Robillard
France, 1932
André Robillard grew up near Orléans, France. He experienced great behavioral difficulties growing up and, at the age of eight, he was put in a school attached to a psychiatric hospital. At the age of 19, as a result of mental disturbances, André Robillard was committed to the hospital in Fleury-les-Aubrais: here he carried out various tasks. Having a part-time job in charge of the purification plant, he conquered some autonomy. He lived in a 150 square meter area at one end of the institution where he stored the guns and spaceships that he started making from objects salvaged from the rubbish tip and from the hospital’s workshop. Considering himself more a “bricoleur” than an artist, Robillard uses all kinds of found objects such as pipes, electric tubes, wood, strings, leather, old lightbulbs. In addition to his sculptures he draws guns, planets, satellites, stars, and animals.
