Georges Rousse in Chile

Solo Exhibition and in-situ Installation

The Santiago Museum of Contemporary Art and the ITAÚ Foundation present the very first exhibition of Georges Rousse in Chile.

The French artist shows more than 30 large format photographs and a complex architectural installation exposed on the first floor of the Santiago Museum of Contemporary Art (M.A.C. de Santiago) and in the Espacio Arte Abierto in the ITAÚ Foundation, produced thanks to the writer Felipe Tupper and with the support of the French Institute of Chile.

Georges Rousse began his artistic career as a photographer. His interest for architecture and geometry has led him to experiment the transformation of abandoned spaces, touching the limits of photography. In his work, he transforms the spaces by means of anamorphosis : distorsion of the image that, thanks to the optical process, gives birth to new virtual spaces.

The choice of the places is fundamental to him, because he works directly in these spaces, creating new curves, new lines and paintings before taking the final picture. This way, architecture is all at the same time, matter and working environment for the artist.

His beginnings in photography are linked to architectural photography, taking pictures of abandoned buildings (post war or new urbanization) that he inhabits with the human figurative representations, painted directly on the walls. At the beginning of the 1980’s, interested by abstraction, he began painting geometrical shapes instead of figures.

Today in his work, he builds those shapes, embodied volumetrically and virtually within the camera lens, with distorsions and vivid colors.

« Georges Rousse’s work of art is hard to define : it proposes a real challenge to imagination and an invitation to experiment new ways of looking » explains Francisco BRUGNOLI (Director of the Santiago Museum of Contemporary Art)

« We are very proud to present this exhibition in Chile, together with the MAC, our partner in many projects. This project is remarkable for its innovation and because it is intrinsically didactic and creative. It fulfills our mission of reuniting the public around Contemporary Art and to present in Chile internationally renown artists.

In Georges Rousse’s work, the final work is a photograph, but the creative process is equally worthy. That’s why the artist has decided to reveal it, by means of this installation, visible in the great hall of the MAC Parque Forestal. There, will be built a replica of an emblematic housing in the history of Chile’s contemporary architecture : a house from la Ciudad Abierta de Ritoque. In this house, the artist will intervene artistically, by painting and deconstructing some parts of the house. » Boris BUVINIC (Vice-President of the ITAÚ Foundation)

« This installation is a proof of the highly innovative dynamic of Georges Rousse’s work. the challenge is, after the exhibition, to make this structure travel towards other destinations, so as to make travel this incredible encounter between an artist and an architecture. » Felipe TUPPER (Writer and curator of the exhibition)

Georges Rousse’s exhibition will be the principal activity of the M.A.C. de Santiago for Museos de Medianoche (Midnight Museums) that will happen on October 25th, 2013. At 6 p.m., the artist will give a conference in which he will explain his work to the public, his exhibition in Chile and his installation in the Main Hall of the M.A.C. de Santiago.

Georges ROUSSE, has participated in 1996 to the Collective exhibition Los límites de la Fotografía at the Museo de Bellas Artes and in Signs of Existence at the M.A.C. de Santiago in 2007

M.A.C. Parque Forestal,
Santiago de Chile

Parque Forestal s/n,
Santiago de Chile

Tel.: (+56 2) 9771741

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M.A.C. Parque Forestal,
Santiago de Chile

Exhibition
from 24 October 2013
to 19 January 2014

Opening
October 23rd, 2013