Accustomed to abandoned and deserted spaces, Georges Rousse’s interventions in heritage spaces are rare and precious. An even rarer occurrence is that his interventions are accessible to the public.
These two factors are combined at La Celle Abbey, with the creation this spring of two site-specific works, visible in the cloister galleries and accompanied by an exhibition of original prints presented in the Abbey’s Dormitory and Refectory.
This retrospective traces Georges Rousse’s career from the 1980s to the present day, through significant works that represent the evolution of his relationship with space and matter.
Despite the fact that the on-site creations themselves appear as works of art, Rousse’s true works are the photographs, or rather, photography, which recreate his intervention in the site. Yet, these interventions, whose complexity we never tire of contemplating and trying to understand when we have the opportunity to access them, as here today and in 2023 in Deauville with the creation of a work for the Planches Contact festival, which remained visible for an entire year are only a step towards the realization of a work.
In the works created for and at the Abbaye de La Celle, new expressions of an ongoing dialogue between painting, architecture, and photography, we find the circle and the color yellow, references to perfect form and light, allegories of the spirituality of the place. But also black, in homage to Malevich’s Black Square on a White Background, a recurring source of inspiration for Georges Rousse.
His positioning, balanced between several disciplines, offers several keys to interpreting and entering his universe. The curiosity that drives him to travel and discover other cultures inspires and enriches each creation so intimately inhabited by the genius loci.
The encounter with Rousse at La Celle begins with the discovery of his creations in the cloister.
At the end of two of the galleries, the usual perception of space is disrupted by a sort of destructuring of the elements—vaults, walls, staircases—where, like a veil, a neutral and silent hue is placed on the stone, like a living material that changes appearance according to our movements. It follows us, like the gaze in certain paintings, until the precise moment and place where it freezes into a perfect form, a floating apparition, like time, light, and the mind.
Dialogue with the places where he works is central to Georges Rousse’s approach. Here, respect for the spirit of the Benedictine monastery was accompanied by respect for the architectural heritage. Rousse’s interventions were preceded by extensive research into their feasibility and the search for materials suited to a listed historic monument.
This irruption of contemporary art within the walls of a 13th-century Provençal Romanesque monument offers a renewed visit to this place, where the sacred releases a kind of timeless spirituality and temporal boundaries fade into art and creation.
Laura Serani
In situ creations and retrospective
Curated by Laura Serani
Exhibition on the program of the Grand Arles Express / Rencontres d’Arles 2025
The Abbey of La Celle. Until November 2, 2025
Scenography and executive production Niccolo Hébel
Assistant Yvan Robin. Intern Doga Ozca
In the Dormitory:
In the Refectory: Aquapaper reproductions (228 cm x 171 cm), produced by Initial Labo, 2025.
Three documentaries in the exhibition offer keys to understanding the work of Georges Rousse:
– Georges Rousse, Abbaye de la Celle, 2025. 12 minutes, produced at the Abbaye de la Celle, in April 2025.
Director: David Boisseaux-Chical. Music: Abraham Diallo. Komet Production.
– Georges Rousse, Light and Ruin. 20 minutes.
Director: Gilles Perru. Co-production: Sésame Films and Centre Georges Pompidou.
– Georges Rousse, Café loin. Art Project in Miyagi. 10 minutes, produced in Miyagi, Japan, in 2013.
Directed by Daisuke Takahira.
Georges Rousse is represented by Galerie RX and Galerie Catherine Putman, Paris.
June 2025
