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Soaring As Eagles

Soaring As Eagles
Soaring As Eagles

Calyxte Campe’s Eagle sculpture is the perfect centrepiece for Aiglon’s new Moghadam Campus Hub.

Somewhere in a studio deep in the Tuscan countryside, from sketches, balls of clay, wire, tools and dreams of flight over mountains, an eagle is being born. Every eagle is a miracle, but this one is like no other. Cast in bronze, with a wingspan wider than a giraffe is tall, it is the extraordinary creation of sculptor Calyxte Campe (Alpina, 1991). This is the Eagle – a truly unique sculpture to embody the spirit of a unique school.

Calyxte trained at the Charles H. Cecil studio in Florence, renowned for teaching the methods and techniques of painting, drawing and sculpture practised by the great masters of the Renaissance. He is well known for his extraordinary bronze and marble sculptures of people and animals, which brim with life, movement and character – making him the ideal person to bring the idea of the Eagle to life.

It all started with an early meeting between Director of Operations Mr Andy Croft, School Director Ms Nicola Sparrow and Director of Philanthropy and Community Engagement Ms Karen Sandri to discuss the new Moghadam Campus Hub, which will open its doors at the very heart of the school in 2025. The new building beautifully marries form and function – and connecting its two parts, the auditorium and the dining hall, will be a courtyard.

“I mentioned that the space in the courtyard would be a great place for a symbol of our school,” says Mr Croft. “We brainstormed, and it became very clear that an eagle would be the perfect choice.”

The idea was in place – but it took the Aiglon community to make it a reality, including a generous contribution from the Loika family. But who could create such a sculpture? It seemed almost like fate when, a few months later, Ms Sandri met Patrick Hofmann (Alpina, 1992) as he was dropping his daughter off for Summer School, and mentioned the sculpture to him. Patrick instantly suggested his friend and fellow alumnus Calyxte.

“A couple of weeks later, Calyxte was sitting in Ms Sparrow’s office, incredibly excited and ready to go!” remembers Mr Croft.

“Aiglon was a very important part of my life because it taught me the spirit of nature, of outdoor life and of appreciating one’s surroundings,” says Calyxte. “I have such wonderful memories of being in the Art Department, and in Alpina. And now I live in the countryside in Tuscany. It’s the same feeling I had at Aiglon: the views, the height, the nature.”

It also gives him the opportunity to sculpt from life – a key part of Calyxte’s process. Indeed, he is prepared to go to great lengths to get a sense of a creature. When he wanted to observe a horse for a recent commission, for example, he rode a horse into his studio. And although he didn’t have an eagle in his studio, he did have the skies over Tuscany – and, crucially, a motorised paraglider.

“Sculpting from life is where you get all the inspiration and different movements,” he says. “Flying with my paramotor, seeing the birds from above and below, I can really see how they move. That has inspired me very much with my sculpture. There is always such diversity: so, rather than perfect symmetry, one wing might be a bit higher or lower, to give movement.”

Around his idyllic Tuscan farmhouse, Calyxte has two workspaces: one where he keeps his tools, moulds and materials – “That’s a huge mess!” – and one where he works on his current sculpture.

“I like to keep it very clean, and not be distracted by any other sculptures,” he says. “It’s good to have a clean white wall so you can really see the sculpture. I like to look at it from a distance, so it becomes alive. It has to work from far away, and close up. It has to be very accurate, but also, in a way, rough. When you see an eagle swooping down, you see the beak and the feathers, but not all the tiny details.”

He initially creates maquettes and sketches to find the perfect form, then works up a life-sized version in clay – in this case, an eagle with a 5.5-metre wingspan. He uses no tools for this process: just his eyes.

“I look at the maquette, and as I make it bigger, I change it. That’s why clay is really nice: I can move it around.”

Once he is satisfied with the clay model, he creates a mould made up of around 30 different pieces. From that mould, he creates a wax version.

“Then I work the wax a lot to do the final touches: the wing, the tip, the claws and the beak.”

All these pieces are poured in bronze, and Calyxte then creates an armature – a wire frame – that holds the sculpture together inside.

“That’s a big, big process that you never see,” he says. “But it’s very important, as the sculpture will have to withstand rain, snow and wind. That technical side is a very big part of a sculpture like this.”

The pieces are welded together, and then comes the final stage: patination, applying chemicals to create a coloured surface.

“At the moment, I am thinking it will look very natural,” says Calyxte. “Patina is so important, and of course, it ages well, which is important if you have a bronze statue outside.”

As you’d expect, a project like this is a huge logistical challenge. Calyxte is already working with Mr Croft and David Flight of Lausanne project management firm Capital Développement – who is working alongside the project architects Clews (UK) and CP3 (Switzerland) to build the Moghadam Campus Hub – to assess just how the Eagle will complete its journey from Tuscany to its final nesting place.

That will be a project in itself: the Hub site is 20 metres away from the nearest road, and seven or eight metres higher, and at 1.3 tonnes, the Eagle is too heavy for a standard helicopter.

“We’d need a military-grade helicopter, which requires a rather different budget!” says Mr Croft.

“We are hoping a specialist vehicle is going to drive it across from Italy and through the Grand St Bernard tunnel with the crane actually on the vehicle. It’s a tricky problem, but it will be worth it. It is going to look absolutely phenomenal.”

David agrees. “Many students will pass this sculpture every day – and they will know that it wasn’t the simplest thing to make and to install! It shows the skill of the artist and Aiglon’s vision. It shows what is possible, what can be done. It’s inspiring.”

And once it is in place, the Eagle will feel as if it’s always been there, Calyxte hopes.

“I have made it deliberately ambiguous: you don’t know whether it is taking off or landing,” he says.

“That way, it feels more alive, as if it’s moving, and it’s part of everything. I’d love it to just blend in: whether it’s sunny, rainy or snowing, it’s always there over the years. I’d love it to become part of the landscape, like the mountains.”


Words by Lucy Jolin and photography by Joe McGorty. This article originally appeared in Issue 23 of the Aiglon Magazine.