MAP PROJECT SPACE..GEORGE ROUSSE
George Rousse was born in 1947 is a French artist who is inspired by old and often abandoned structures .He converts them into disorienting visions of colour and form .While intuitive in their conception his artworks are the result of a precise mathematical approach.
MAP PROJECT SPACE..GEORGE ROUSSE
He divides architectural spaces into multiple planes .At first glance, one may feel it disjointed ,disoriented .The whole composition gives a harmonious experience from a particular angle alone..M A P emerges as an experience from a single perspective . The third dimensional reality turns flat..Reality is flattened and the photograph is made by the artist that suggests the work is complete.
MAP PROJECT SPACE..GEORGE ROUSSE
”Here In Fort Kochi ,I seek to create interventions is a former 18 century space spice warehouse that I first visited during a previous trip to India. At that time it was very dilapidated ,vegetation invaded the external walls ,parts of the floors had collapsed in on themselves making it perilous to venture in. Only the external facade retained some of the splendour of the past .Four years later I was offered now the partly restored space by the Museum of Art and Photography(M. A. P.) to create a site specific intervention as a collateral exhibition on the occasion of the Kochi Muziris Biennale.
MAP PROJECT SPACE..GEORGE ROUSSE
They proposed this space in Kochi as a satellite of the main museum which is currently under construction in Bengaluru and excited by the the possibilities I agreed to intervene this space to reimaging it and give it a new image..
MAP PROJECT SPACE..GEORGE ROUSSE
In 2017 the Museum of Art and Photography(M. A. P.) Bangaluru began a restoration project of this warehouse Fort Kochi in order for it to be used as a project-based arts venue. Currently the downstairs rooms lent to theKochi Muziris Biennale,whilst the upstairs room and the courtyard form a curatorial space in which M. A. P has invited two artists to create unique installations as collateral exhibitions of the Biennale .
MAP PROJECT SPACE..GEORGE ROUSSE
For its part of the space,M. A. P worked with two international artists as a reference to Kochi’s historic identity. As city very much connected to the world as well as to reflect M. A. P ‘S own identity as an arts organisation that has a global outlook.
MAP PROJECT SPACE..GEORGE ROUSSE
George Rousse says.”.I chose to make my first work outside in the courtyard .I retain strong memory of the architectural element from my first visit to the collapsed area of the warehouse at Fort Kochi.Much of the debris had since been cleared and the structure partially restored on my second visit but I liked the position occupied by this arch. I felt an inbetweeness where one experiences the vestiges of a beautiful architectural past without it having been fully rebuilt.” ”Observing this architectural ruin from a window on the first floor it became associated with colour in my mind .I already saw it’s completely repainted in what would become eventually a sculptural object.
MAP PROJECT SPACE..GEORGE ROUSSE
He created a mysterious harmony by introducing the three basic geometric shapes used in architecture the square ,the circle and the triangle .This symbol forms are both easily recognisable and used often in his different workspaces. Here in this contest they would come to oppose the disorder that looms in the viewers mind because the abandonment and the passing of time..”
MAP PROJECT SPACE..GEORGE ROUSSE
The main idea off the work is is the heterogeneous elements are violently yoked together .The map artist usually chose to rupture the space.That means to split it into multiple plots. Then they are linked by different colours.
MAP PROJECT SPACE..GEORGE ROUSSE
It organises them around a shape visible from a single point of space. when we look at the heptagon or any polygon. We see multitudes of particles that are being assembled and linked by the colour .Blue colour is used here.
MAP PROJECT SPACE..GEORGE ROUSSE
Previously he had made a series of holes with newspapers he had covered all the images with black paint in the newspapers.This is to show there is no need for photographs in the press and how they invaded our daily lives..
MAP PROJECT SPACE..GEORGE ROUSSE
As a photographer George Rousse sought to create interventions by combining the forms of painting, drawing,geometry and architecture. Each of his projects evolve as per their specific context means the situation in which they are launched.The project is influenced by the country ,the culture ,the architecture and in resonance with his current research. He believed that there was no possibility of creating and intervention without considering all of these factors.