Biennale diary: MAP collaborates with Georges Rousse, Nassia Inglessis for site-specific installations at KMB 2018

MAP collaborates with two artists - French artist Georges Rousse, and Greek designer Nassia Inglessis - for site-specific installations in a collateral exhibition of the 2018 Kochi Muziris Biennale.

White blue hexagon

French artist Georges Rousse is inspired by old, abandoned structures. He then converts them into disorienting visions of colour and form.

His artworks are the result of a precise mathematical approach to divide architectural spaces into multiple planes that, at first glance, may seem disjointed, until the mise-en-scène is released from a single perspective; reality is flattened and a photograph is made by the artist (at which point the ‘work’ is complete).

This year, Rousse has created three such works at the recently renovated MAP Project Space. The project space is an 18th-century Dutch warehouse that had fallen to ruin and has been restored over the past two years by Bengaluru’s upcoming Museum of Art & Photography (MAP).

When it opens in 2020, MAP will be South India’s first major private museum with its collection of over 15,000 artworks. While its physical space is being built the museum is carrying out its mission through loans, workshops, lectures, collaborations and off-site exhibitions such as this one.

In addition to Rousse, MAP is also hosting Greek designer Nassia Inglessis (Studio INI) whose work, ‘In Need of Transformation’ is an output of her fieldwork with recycled glass in India. The glass pieces on display are the result of her creative efforts in bringing innovative, creative techniques that combine craft and technology in pneumatics and light to glassblowers across India.

Abhishek Poddar, a founding trustee of MAP said, “We hope that this exhibition is only the first of many at the recently renovated MAP Project Space. We want this space to contribute to our overall vision that museums should play a positive role in society and serve as a catalyst for greater public exposure to the visual arts in the country. Rousse and Inglessis are well-known for their work abroad and to have them exhibit their installations here in India serves to introduce new audiences to their practice.”