Rol Backendorf

Rol Backendorf, born in 1961 in Pétange, obtained his CAPT as an iron turner from ARBED in 1979. In 1988, after 7 years working as an iron turner in the CFL workshops, he sets up his own business creating fake jewellery. The following year, he took a teaching and artistic course at the circus school in Brussels. Thanks to the Chambre des Métiers and the Ministry of Culture, he was able to rent his first workshop to pursue his passion for art as a true self-taught artist.

Since 2010 he has had his own workshop at the Becher Gare. By combining different materials with iron, Rol gives it its missing characteristic: lightness. He focuses his research on the kinetic effects of stainless steel and develops a meticulous sanding technique to create illusionistic, three-dimensional wall sculptures. He discovered and developed titanium anodising to add colour and give his works the power to metamorphose according to the light and the viewer's point of view.

Rol Backendorf is vice-chairman of ARC Kenschtlerkrees asbl, a director of VIART asbl and a specialist at the Lycée Ermesinde since 2010.