Through "Voyages des imaginaires", Federica Matta wishes to revive the great maritime saga of Rochefort (Charente-Maritime) and its Arsenal des Mers.
As in Chile, Portugal, Japan, or recently in Bordeaux, Federica Matta transfigures and breathes new life into public places to allow residents to develop another way of meeting each other and living together.
Here in Rochefort, she invents a journey where the diversity and history of the places are sources of inspiration. Its mythological and poetic universe is composed of mermaids, snakes, moons, suns, and texts that walk at the whim of the swell and compose a universal alphabet. |
 |
 |
To design this journey, Federica Matta wished to create, as part of a residence, a work specially thought for this place that the public of Rochefort can appropriate.
Entering the Roral Ropery with Federica Matta is to go into a space where the visible and the invisible meet: the building of the Royal Ropery and the art of weaving, in the same way our visions and our realities intersect. Multiple images, words, emotions, rhythms, merge into a unique, powerful sensation: poetic. We come across a lot of poetry in Federica’s works, because pronouncing a sentence from a poem suddenly takes us out of everyday life and the moment. This creates a new space between beings, takes us to a common territory where we can «change by exchanging», to use the words of the Martinican writer, Édouard Glissant. |
A fresco runs along a 21 meters long wall. Federica Matta tells his own encounter with Rochefort and its inhabitants. It invites everyone to let themselves be carried by these images that dialogue with the surrounding universe, and bring us to the heart of ourselves, where our collective consciousness vibrates. We will meet the Sun King, Pierre Loti, the Hubert Mill… Thus ships, sailors, stopovers of Federica Matta mingle with the myths and imaginations of the Royal Ropery.
It is up to everyone to find the elements that dialogue with the city. Public art places - and the fresco in particular, because of its generous dimensions - are privileged spaces to exchange our visions, our hopes, our possibilities, to reinvent together. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
Ath the back of a dividing wall, a coloring fresco invites young and old ones to share a moment, to exchange. Through colour, says Federica Matta, we bring images to life, while being carried by a common energy and desire: a poetic and meditative way to connect with ourselves, with others, with our creative power. Thus an interconnected space is created: myself, yourself, ourselves."
Thereby is released the collective unconscious, where while the gesture is exercised in all concentration, following the lines not to be exceeded, the spirit is freed from its limits, and sets out to conquer new utopias.
The Royal Ropery is also a setting of the artist's sculptures, paintings and drawings created over the years for Martinique, Saint-Nazaire, etc. They are the gateway to access the multiple imaginary worlds we share without always being fully aware of them. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Octopus realized by the Centre social René Primevère Lesson - Rochefort. |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
| Liens utiles |
 |
|
|
| Reportage broadcast on France 3 Atlantique: |
|
