Georges Rousse
YOU SEE NOT WHAT YOU SEE
It is just as if a giant cage has descended
from heaven. That is way in which the
installation by Georges Rousse hangs in
the city gate of the Nieuwpoortstraat. The
cage, much too big for this gate in fact, is
a semi-transparent construction of wood
en beams and diagonal wooden crossbars,
which have been partly painted in red. At
first glance it looks shapeless and without
significance; yet those who view it like
that, fail to see anything.
Rousse's trapezium is a well-organised
optical illusion, which deceives until one
finds the right point of view. Only from
that exact spot can one see the image. The
red fragments come together perfectly to
form a huge circle, and transform into
a red sun, setting in the city gate. If the
spectator changes his position only slight
ly, the image of the circle falls away and
reverts back to its initial manifestation: a
seemingly coincidental collection of red
strokes of paint.
Rousse has created a so-called
anamorphosis in between the fafades of
this gate. It is an image that plays with
perspectives; according to art historians,
Leonardo de Vinci was the first to dis
play the technique. He drew a couple of
seemingly random lines on paper, which
only when seen from a specific angle took
on normal proportions and turned into
a child's head. At first glance we observe
nothing more than a distorted image that
turns into a recognizable representation
by way of an optical illusion. It boils down
to finding the right point of view.
Rousse is in fact a photographer, but
the kind that creates and recreates a situ
ation to produce the image he eventually
chooses to photograph; the image is a
result of an artistically infused process.
He controls everything: the development
of the concept, the construction, the paint
ing process, and finally the photo. And his
process will not differ for Fafade 2012 in
Middelburg. The cage that is now hanging
in the gate, and disrupting our experience
of the surroundings, is merely a part of
the installation of which the photo will be
the final act.
Rousse prefers to work in abandoned
places, such as old houses or deserted
industrial complexes. There he produc
es simple painterly interventions that
are always abstract and geometrical. By
intervening in those existing spaces he
attempts to add another image, which
breathes new energy into the old trusted
place, before its permanent demise.
But the Nieuwpoortstraat is not
an abandoned location. Then again, if
nobody is looking anymore, then architec
ture can also take on a deserted air. Then
buildings become but exterior shapes
cast in stone, unconnected to the citizens
living there. Rousse wants us to see our
world afresh by using painterly means
in changing our trusted environment. In
this case he organizes, partly hidden, a
very precise perspective in line with the
Renaissance painters who created the illu
sion of a landscape. His anamorphosis is
a clever optical illusion; an estrangement
with the intention to mislead, thereby
invoking amazement. We ask ourselves
what we are looking at. His reply is to
look closer!
www.georgerousse.com
Filip Dujardin
USING PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES
IN CONSTRUCTION
In the Low Countries we are used to rec
ognizing a city by its profile. Albeit that
the church spires have, in the meanwhile,
been outstripped by apartment build
ings, houses, and factories. However,
if we would regard the same city from
up above, we would notice some very
different characteristics. We would then
see roofs, put together like the stones in
a seemingly random mosaic. If it were
an older city, with primarily tiled roofs,
the dominant colour would be red; and
over time this colour would have been
nuanced into weathered hues. This is also
a fafade, but seen with a bird's eye view.
It is a whimsical pattern of roofs that for
the most part obscure the houses, streets,
and squares. They exist, but we only see
the tops.
Filip Dujardin made an installation
entitled 2x3x5, in which he condensed
the profile of the city into a construction
of roofs. Roofs without houses, like an
abstraction of the reality in which we live;
a prop on a stage. He has reduced the uni
versal city to detached, sloping roofs, sub
sequently combining them into one image.
The roofs are installed on scaffold
ing: 10 meters high, 4 meter wide and
6 meters long. These are practically the
measurements of an average home. It is
subdivided into modules measuring 2
by 2 meters. Every module has a roof, at
least a form resembling a roof. Dujardin's
roofs are fake; just as fake as the synthetic
roofs used in modern modular architec
ture, but which look like old-fashioned
fired tiles. However, they betray them
selves because of their unnatural shiny
hue, just like Dujardin's roofs, which turn
the city into a stage's decor.
Dujardin specializes in architectural
photography. Importantly though, he does
not photograph what is there; his photo
montages do not represent an existing
world. On the contrary, he builds a com-
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