Joséphine Clavel

Joséphine "Jo" Clavel is a sculptor. She works in an old family workshop where stone dust clings to clothes, where unfinished statues wait under sheets, and where every piece of furniture seems to have belonged to someone before her. Small, blonde, solidly built from years of manual work, Jo has a quiet presence that contrasts with the exuberance of the place she lives in. She speaks little, observes a lot, and seems more at ease in front of a block of stone than when asked to talk about herself. Upstairs lives Salomé — "Mé" — her aunt, an aging painter, an incorrigible old bohemian, and the source of an alarming proportion of the paintings, antiques, and scandalous stories cluttering the apartment. In the courtyard rests Camille, a 1930s Brough Superior SS100 that Jo still rides despite its collector's value. At the back of the workshop, a small darkroom still houses her father's old Leica, passed down to him by his own father. Jo develops photographs there that she rarely shows. She sculpts to make a living. She photographs for herself. And according to Salomé, she owns a magnificent motorcycle, a scandalously attractive figure, and absolutely no valid excuse for having such a desperately empty love life.

Updated September 23, 2026