Photographer Georges Rousse transforms the abbey of La Celle into a geometric trompe-l'oeil

This is not a square. At the heart of La Celle Abbey, two intertwined geometric shapes welcome visitors: a yellow square and a black one, painted directly onto the monument's stones. Squares... In appearance only. They are the work of photographer Georges Rousse, to whom the Department is dedicating the Utopia exhibition.

To fully grasp its scope, you have to move around, play with perspectives, find the ideal angle where the trompe-l'oeil is perfectly revealed.

"It's very immersive, because the visitor becomes the creator of the image perceived by moving around. It creates a spatial distortion, an anamorphosis, or more simply a trompe-l'oeil," explains Yvon Lemoine, the site's manager.

"He manipulates reality with a deliberately distorted device, observable only from a specific point, 1.58 meters from the ground - the height of the eye of the lens of his camera," he adds.

For the artist, these painted forms are not an end in themselves, but a preparatory work: the final photograph is the finished work.

A subtle dialogue with the place

To respect the heritage, the intervention focused on a renovated part of the vaults (in 2021), with paint applied over a protective varnish. At the end of the exhibition, the whole thing can be removed without leaving a trace. "We wanted something ephemeral and reversible," Yvon Lemoine adds.

The photo, soberly titled Abbaye de La Celle 1, 2025 , was conceived and created on site. A little further on, a second work awaits the visitor, still under the vaults: this time, Georges Rousse has set up his tripod facing a service staircase.

"He created a perfect superposition on several levels. There is a real dialogue between the work and the architecture," emphasizes Yvon Lemoine. Here again, the illusion is striking: a yellow circle fits precisely into the curves of the vaults.

The yellow, common to both compositions, evokes the spirituality of the place. Before arriving at this point, the artist carried out several reconnaissance missions to identify the spaces best suited to his work.

Then, armed with his camera and tripod, he captured the scene, connecting his camera to a computer to simulate the final visual effect. Finally, he painted everything on site, assisted by an assistant.

Between Malevich and Mondrian

In addition to these original creations, the abbey is offering a retrospective of Georges Rousse's career in the refectory and convent rooms. He received his first camera at the age of nine and has continued to travel the world ever since.

At home, the artistic shift took place when he discovered Kazimir Malevich, notably his Black Square on a White Background, but also the geometric universe of Mondrian.

Georges Rousse made a habit of settling in abandoned buildings, wastelands, but also prestigious places like Chambord.

His approach consists of investing space, painting geometric shapes (squares, circles, octagons) without erasing existing elements: electrical outlets, furniture, or wall irregularities. Thus, at La Celle, Georges Rousse demonstrates that contemporary art does not erase the past: it reveals it.

Georges Rousse Utopia . Until November 2 at the Abbey of La Celle. Free admission from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (June - August), from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (Sept. - November).