The cloister of the Abbaye aux Hommes sublimated by Olivier Ratsi’s neon lights
The plastic artist, Olivier Ratsi installed his neon lights in the cloister of the Abbaye aux Hommes in Caen. As soon as night falls, the installation entitled Frame Perspective sublimates this Caen place steeped in history.
After Lyon and its Festival of Lights, Olivier Ratsi and his gang landed in Caen at the joint invitation of the Town Hall and the Interstice Festival.
Renowned visual artist, officiating all over the world, Olivier Ratsi likes to deconstruct space and play with our senses. Are we right side up or upside down? Is what I see real? It also thwarts the world of our habits and provokes our gaze.
In the cloister of the Abbaye aux Hommes in Caen, the artist has found a magnificent playground.
“This place steeped in history is sublime. It is part of my job to make people rediscover their heritage. The force of habit means that we no longer look at the places. I will try to show this cloister in a different way. “
Olivier Ratsi, plastic artist
duration of the video: 01min 52
Olivier Ratsi’s installation at the Abbaye aux Hommes in Caen
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© France 3 Normandy
For a week, Olivier Ratsi, assisted by municipal services and the staff of the Interstice Festival, installed around forty squares of red neon lights.
Frame is the frame, is the unit. Its multiplication creates the prospect “
Frame Perspective is also music for the created work and its staging. It was produced by Thomas Vaquié, a longtime accomplice.
The Mir station, Interstice, the City of Caen have joined forces to bring to Caen Olivier Ratsi a Parisian plastic artist who counts in the French and international cultural world. We think of François Morellet’s neon lights, a copy of which highlights the facade of the Caen MBA, but Olivier Ratsi draws his inspiration rather from the Italian Renaissance.
The Quattrocento by Florentine artists of the 15th century serves as a reference. Their idea of placing humans at the center of the world. My work is therefore part of the continuity of their movement, by creating a dialogue between the spectator who is placed in the work and the one who remains outside.
O. Ratsi, plastic surgeon
Every evening until January 14, Monday to Friday, from 6 to 9 p.m., visitors can vibrate for free on the movements of Olivier Ratsi’s red frames in the cloister of the Abbaye aux Hommes in Caen. An event that is worth the trip.