2009
With this colourful collage that measures 95 meters in length and 4 meters in height, Yves Zurstrassen
offers a riot of colour in a sombre environment.
Zurstrassen decorated the wall facing the platform in the direction Delacroix with bright motifs from
his former paintings. In order to do this, he began by photographing 130 details from his own work, blowing them up, in order to reproduce their texture in the work. In this way, the photos take on a sensual character that makes one want to touch them. In the following phase, Yves Zurstrassen positioned enlarged details on patterns that he created himself. These patterns are glued to panels of synthetic, heat tempered resin that have been covered with a protective layer against graffiti.
Finally, the 130 shapes were carefully cut out and affixed to a support mesh made of stainless steel tape.
For the shapes of these coloured elements, the artist drew inspiration from artistic motifs around
the world. Arabic Mashrabiya are used repeatedly as a wink to the North African community that lives in the area.
The work of Yves Zurstrassen creates the sensation of movement both when viewed from the platform as well as from the trains that pass through the station.
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YVES ZURSTRASSEN
Yves Zurstrassen lives and works in a former cotton factory in Brussels that he has gradually and painstakingly restored and enlarged. There, he creates canvasses on a monumental scale in bright colours and
combines collage, décollage and contemporary techniques.
The work of this artist has undergone a significant evolution since his beginnings in the 1970s.
His works in a painterly style leaning towards expressionism are created in series according to his
explorations. They may lead him to create an explosion of 1001 colours, or take a melancholy turn into virtually monochromaticcolour fields.
PICTURES
