Marc Rossignol: ENTRE-DEUX
I paint on the floor with two hands and two long-handled brushes. I put the brushes in two opposing points, it is between these two points, which I call source, that everything happens, hence, "Entre-deux" (Between-Two) the title of the exhibition at Annie Gentils, from 6 September 2020.
Painting and drawing with his right and left hand simultaneously has since 2004 formed part of Marc Rossignol’s artistic practice. He presents this process in his performances as well, usually in combination with him reciting Edouard Glissant, François Cheng, Pasolini. In 2008, Marc Rossignol became inspired by the topological drawings of the Vanuatu (sandroing) and the Lusona Tshokwé because of their Eulerian character.
In 2015, Rossignol started to paint ‘Kolams, (a form of drawing using flour, chalk, and rice practiced by woman in India and Indonesia), a practice that culminated in performances that saw Rossignol paint a series of Kolams on different occasions during each month of the year.
The recent series of works on view in the exhibition still evince the use of the continuous line according to Eulerian principles, filling the total space of the canvas or paper and ending at the very point of its departure. "To trace the grids, I set out a grid of (invisible) dots on the surface to be worked on, then, using both hands and two brushes, I trace around each of these dots once and only once, as in any Eulerian grid".
"To draw or to paint with the right and the left hand simultaneously, is to install a tension, which is both physical and appealing to the mind; The physical experience is guiding the mind into becoming pure sensation.”
"I am currently drawing grids of continuous lines that invade the space, superimpose each other, intertwine in an inextricable tangle. To draw, to paint with both hands simultaneously, is to install a tension; to ignite the body as well as the mind, the experience lived by the body guides the mind which becomes purely receptive. To physically live the body, our ultimate nature, with the mind awakened, welcoming the universe as a whole. Body and mind converge intensely in the expression of a grid that is not really an image, nor writing, but deeply linked to the moment in which it is produced. For an artistic practice that is more physical than spiritual, I want to give back to the body it's creative competence. I exhaust the load of the brushes along the course to mark the path from the beginning to the end, and thus emphasise the special relationship with the passing of time".-
Marc Rossignol - April 2020
(see catalogus Marc Rossignol “ENTRE – DEUX)