RACHID MIZRAHI
Sculptor, visual artist, and craftsman of raw materials, Rachid Mizrahi forges his art through the practice of natural plasters: earth-based concretes, traditional lime, and above all Moroccan tadelakt. This demanding technique—where body and mind align with each stage of the alchemical process—becomes his school.
Fully devoted, both physically and mentally, to his work, he enters into congruence with the mortar-material as it transforms on the wall.
Gesture after gesture, site after site, he learns to become one with the material.
THE CRAFTSMAN: EXCEPTIONAL PROJECTS
From 2004 onward, each project became a unique piece. Rachid works with volume, refines lines, and introduces curves into spaces that functional modernity had frozen into flat surfaces and right angles.
His reputation led him to prestigious commissions:
- Hammams and bathtubs — Château Castigno (2011), Château Beaulieu (2012)
- Tomb of Rav Berg — Safed, Israel (2013)
- Shpiegler bathrooms — Jerusalem
- Limewashes at the Abbey of Notre-Dame du Pesquié — Ariège (2016)
- LUMA workshops — earth plasters, Arles (2023)
- Former Paoli Clinic — hot-mix lime renders on straw-based external insulation, LUMA Foundation (2024)
THE TRANSMITTER: SHARING KNOWLEDGE
Since 2008, Rachid has devoted a significant part of his time to teaching. As an independent trainer, he works in centers across France—Bâtipole, École Européenne de l’Art et des Matières, CTFPA, Écorce, MVH, 3PCO—and abroad (Israel, Cameroon).
Training sites, courses, mentoring apprentices, informal exchanges: all threads woven together to build a network that is both professional and human.
THE ARTIST: SCULPTURES AND EXPLORATIONS
2014 — First studio in Sète. Artist Dani Karavan commissions a series of large clay-concrete sculptures for the exhibition Adama (Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger, Paris 2016; Museum of Modern Art of Céret, 2015).
This is followed by collaborations with painter Marc Duran, and participation in Rêvolution by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, representing France at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015).
From these encounters emerges his own sculptural body of work: The Leaves, large pieces of raw earth shaped into spirals and twists.
2017 — Moves to Arles, joining Archéomed. New collaborations: SCOP La Pierre au Carré, designer Miki Nectoux, and the Mobiterre furniture line.
He then explores the natural cracking of clay through a series of panel-paintings (SIPPA exhibition, LUMA Foundation, 2018), creates Fragile Balance—a sculpture integrated into the façade of a private mansion in Liberchies (Belgium)—and designs Fossil Flowers, phonograph-like objects in earth and tadelakt that reproduce sounds captured during their making.
2019 — The Serpentine. In collaboration with Canopée agency, this reception structure for Nîmes Métropole (Pont du Gard TGV station) leads him to develop MizTerre, a composite material combining lightweight earth and rammed earth.
Later applications include:
- Sample T22U.RFU — with Miki Nectoux, Olivia Frapolli, and Sébastien Soulez-Larivière, Festival des Architectures Vives, Montpellier (2022)
- Cooling Stop — a prototype of urban furniture in raw earth, with Entreautre agency and 3PCO
2020 — Lockdown becomes an opportunity to return to essentials: using local materials and almost no tools, he builds Shell-Terre, a habitable cob sculpture, a meditation space embedded in the landscape.
Reconnecting with the place where his childhood imagination first flourished, Rachid settles in La Garrigue, in the Minervois. He establishes his new Atelier—a space for experimentation, prototyping, creation, and transmission.
2022 — Emergence of the Winged Phallus series; exhibition The Whisper of Fossil Flowers; clay model for the exhibition The Eyes of the Sky by Antoine Grumbach (Galerie Jaeger Bucher, Paris).
THE ADVOCATE: THE REVIVAL OF HOT-MIX LIME
A trip to Israel (2022) reconnects him with hot-mix lime plaster techniques. He organizes the arrival in France of key figures: Yotam Carmel (2022), followed by Nigel Copsey, whose lecture at SIPPA 2023 marks a turning point.
The Paoli Clinic project for the LUMA Foundation—hot-mix exterior renders on straw insulation—brings together a core group of passionate artisans. The collective Chaux Bouillante is born, along with its manifesto and the first hot-mix gatherings in France (2025).
RECENT LECTURES AND TRAINING
- 2024 — Building Lime Forum, Brighton (UK)
- 2025 — Conferences Designing Natural Plasters (Israel), LUMA Days, Compagnons du Devoir (France)
- 2025 — Raw earth workshop for artists; launch of a new training cycle focused on primary materials: earth and quicklime
A TRIPLE COMMITMENT
Artist, craftsman, trainer, plaster designer, lecturer—whatever the role, Rachid Mizrahi commits himself to extraordinary projects where creativity lies at the heart of a triangle: expertise, imagination, and transmission.