If there is one thing that Gibus, aka Jean-Baptiste Boutin, seeks without necessarily knowing it, it is the only truth that is worthwhile: the one that we owe to ourselves.
The search for this personal Grail is the key that explains his journey. At the end of his secondary studies, Jean-Baptiste, who was not yet Gibus, joined the ECV, a graphic arts school in Bordeaux. There he learned typography, illustration, visual identity, advertising and design. Diploma in hand, he embarked on his career and successfully exercised freelance artistic direction for the agency Publicis Bordeaux for five years… Something is wrong, however… Jean-Baptiste feels out of place. He feels a lack, a dissatisfaction, but of what and why?
He could have done as many do: accept the failure as inevitable and pretend to forget the questions. But if he's good at creating, he's not at pretending.
So he went around the world for a year to look for answers. He comes back rich in encounters and experiences, as it should be, and with the beginnings of a response in the form of a lasting desire. A desire for wood and for hands that work with it. His. However, envy has not yet formed… So Jean-Baptiste returns to what he can do: advertising, for two years. But the desire persists and takes the form of an obsession, Jean-Baptiste spends hundreds of hours watching Youtube videos devoted to woodturning. A madness, but a first step to learn.

He discovers the basics, a few good gestures, and above all the certainty that he has his answer. He built a small plank workshop at the bottom of his garden in Ambares-et-Lagrave. He buys himself a lathe. And he begins to turn. A lot. All the time, every day. One big step after another, he is making progress. And when he works with wood on his lathe, there is no longer lack or dissatisfaction. There is righteousness and joy. Then, over the years, over the course of his research, his work evolved, wood turning opened the path towards sculpture.
Now Jean-Baptiste is called Gibus, that's his artist name. Despite being an accomplished sculptor he is always in search. From the different essences he works with, he extracts the truth from the forms contained in it. Pure, simple and fair forms.
Gibus's work is available for sale. Each new work is presented on social networks. Each of them is unique and will not be reproduced. Jean-Baptiste is also a teacher in the art school that trained him: the ECV. And he is also, always, a freelance artistic director. When it suits him.