One late summer day, the WIPO Magazine and WIPO Multimedia team loaded up cameras and equipment and headed out to interview the sculptor Nicolas Lavarenne in Seyssel, France, a remote mountain village which once marked the border between France and Italy. We almost missed his workshop: a run-down building, hidden behind a grocer's parking lot. But on crossing the threshold, we entered Ali Baba's cave. Mr. Lavarenne's art - wood, plaster, wax and bronze sculptures in various stages of progress - was everywhere: on the floor, workta-bles and shelves, and hanging from the ceiling, walls and staircases. There were even sculptures hanging from sculptures. A motorcycle, hand-drawn doodles, posters from exhibitions and other objects littered the room. We did not know where to turn, what to look at first. We wandered from one object to another fascinated and eager to find out how such a slight, self-effacing man could have created such works. Our cameras turning, he told us his story.
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