Georges Rousse
"In-Situ" works

In 1990, Georges Rousse began working on a commission for the collection of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie to produce a series of pictures on the site before the restoration. He was the first of about twenty contemporary photographers to be commissioned. Their work will be presented throughout 1996 in the permanent collection rooms.

Biography :

Georges Rousse was born in Paris in 1947. In the early eighties he began photographing abandoned sites and empty buildings due to be demolished or restored. His approach was to choose a site, then paint human and geometrical figures and take the picture, the final stage of this artistic process. In 1984, be began concentrating on abstracts and geometrical volumes : cones, parallelepipeds and pyramids drawn on walls and floors, actually "transforming" flat painted surfaces into three dimensions using the camera. He also used doors, windows, corridors to provide perspective and openness. In the "Embrasures" series (1987), the floor and walls are covered with hieroglyphics. His work, monumental and complex, lies at the junction between painting, architecture and photography, created by the use of large format cibachrome prints and a thorough understanding of the laws of geometry. Following a period in residence at the Villa Medicis, Rome in 1986-1987, he was awarded the prize of the I.C.P. of New York in 1988.