Artist Camille Rouzaud

Camille’s work explores the emotional spectrum of memories through the expression of freedom. Their relation with play, movement and adventurous situations in both urban and natural landscapes create an intimate experience into the joyful self to exist in harmony with wounds. The sculptures manifest elements of memories that are rooted in the south of France and the Mediterranean context where Camille grew up, between the countryside and the housing units, the rudeness and tenderness of existence on the coast. They are also inspired by the New York City and Puerto Rican surroundings where Camille have been living over the last ten years. They are made from pieces of bikes, playful objects, found and welded metals, taking us to the place where we make up our own rules.

What’s your artistic background?

When I was 15, my mom first brought me to a photography exhibition at the communal center in my hometown and that’s when something clicked. At the time I had a random film camera so I started taking pictures of friends and streets around me. Intuitively, I was trying to capture the power of the moment, the energy of it. After high school, I didn’t enroll in any graduate program. My artistic practice has been self taught. For years I stopped taking pictures until one day, 10 years later, it all came back and I started shooting again. I never thought of it as a job or anything. I felt it was just what I had to do. Eventually, it transformed into something else, the meaning stayed the same but the forms of creation evolved.

.What’s integral to the work of an artist?

For my practice it’s essential to be able to listen and act on my own instinct and intuition while having the capacity to analyze the dialogue that was initiated.

What role does the artist have in society?

Establishing connections starting from personal experiences that opens dialogue to a universal language. Transformation, what I try to pass on through my artwork is the same idea of what I’m trying to release within myself.

What art do you most identify with?

Definitely mixed media sculptures, they’re like objects that radiate a magnetic energy to me. It’s something I can’t quite explain how attractive it feels to me. It goes through my body, it’s something very carnal. Like a language that speaks to me.

What themes do you pursue?

Liberation. The way we can free ourselves from pain or social norms through playfulness (mostly memories from childhood and teenage hood). The game can be risky or even dangerous but it’s all part of the incarnate experience to get back to our soul.

What’s your favorite artwork?

What comes to my mind right now would be; some of the artwork by Hugh Hayden, Diamond Stingily’s  Entryway, Guadalupe Maravilla’s work is also incredible to me,  Bleumode’s (Julien Boudet) sculptures – he is from Sète and I’m from Narbonne, we grew up in a very similar aesthetic and cultural environment and share some details of inspiration.

Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?

Some would be my most treasured memories as a kid like jumping into the river with our bikes with my friends, inventing a soccer field anywhere with our sweaters to play outside till night at the village or in the projects and riding dirt bikes real fast with no helmets on with my friend Jey when we were 8 years old.

What jobs have you done other than being an artist?

Assistance in fashion jobs, shootings, photography for events, concert productions, movie sets… I did a few jobs I can’t say, incredible experiences. I worked in art direction for advertising in Barcelona, also as a lawyer assistant ( I had zero skills ) for a few months. I picked grapes for wine every year from 12 to 26. I also picked olives, cantaloupe, aubergines, tomatoes…Worked at the farmer’s market, putting products on shelves in supermarkets. Also in a print shop, installing vinyl and probably some more things that I can’t think of right now.

Why art?

The only choice.

What is an artistic outlook on life?

My artistic outlook would be that love is at the base of everything in our life, every experience is connected to love and how we respond to it whether it’s missing or present.

 

What food, drink, song inspires you?

The Mediterranean culture where I grew up, I find it complex to define because it is vibrant, always an evolving mix of so many cultures. I grew up in the sum of all of it. Different foods, music, traditions, languages, friends with family from everywhere (mine included), and yet it is one big beautiful interconnection of all those differences coexisting.

Is artistic life lonely? What do you do to counteract it?

At the moment I don’t really feel lonely or segregated. I am surrounded by a community of good friends, artists, colleagues, art workers of different genres and levels in their careers that have supported me in different ways. But in aspects of my working process, I do love being alone in the studio. This opens a safe space for me to meet with my emotions and ideas in order to engage in a creative process that takes care and secures the truest and honest part of myself.

What do you dislike about the art world?

I dislike the superficial bullshit around the business aspect of the art world. As in every layer of our societies, the art world is not exempt from it. Being faced with the pressure of having to adapt to the market to satisfy economic value shouldn’t be a question when we talk about art as a medium to express our deepest emotions.

What do you dislike about your work?

When it’s not honest enough and puts me in front of my contradictions. Or when the energy changes and the piece almost becomes a stranger to me. It can bring self doubt, feelings of unease. The acceptance of the change becomes hard. But to be honest, I’m also grateful about it all, it forces me to confront myself.

What do you like about your work?

It gave a sense to my life. I spent many years wandering around different jobs, even jobs I really liked but never felt really satisfied. My work just gave me the space to become me, through many layers, from processing traumas to my spiritual practice. It has become part of my journey to embrace love in places where I could not see it.

Should art be funded?

Of course art should be funded. Especially to nurture artists from communities where making art is not seen as a possibility to view and evolve through life. It can definitely give space to dialogues that could not exist without this kind of support.

What role does arts funding have?

Having the peace of mind to not be struggling with day to day jobs to afford your time in the studio. Giving you the privilege to focus on creativity instead of survival. But on a bigger scale, to help support creators whose works could have an impactful meaning in their communities.

What is your dream project?

At the moment, my dream project would be one that gives the opportunity to go full circle. Meaning, having the opportunity to show at places like the Palais de Tokyo, other museums and places worldwide, to collaborate with other creatives I love and complete the cycle with the opportunity to find a great spot to show my work in the city I’m from. And, as a more general sense to the question, it would be to be able to get rid of what locks me up in myself, from my mental health to my art.

Name three artists you’d like to be compared to.

I prefer not to be compared.

Favorite or most inspirational place ?

My most inspirational place is for sure my childhood memories of pure joy. In terms of my environment, nature is definitely needed to recenter myself and allow me to access things in me that I would not be able to see in other contexts. Places like back home in the South of France, Puerto Rico and Los Angeles can also be very inspiring in their nature to me. I also love upstate New York. Those are my most familiar places. Forests and ocean sides. And always in summer. My creativity struggles a lot during winter as a Mediterranean outdoors kid.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

To not abandon myself, something I’ve done many times as a trauma response and that’s the best way for me to get lost. Somehow, my work usually guides me back into me even during those times, it works like a compass. But learning to not abandon myself gets me through really hard stuff to deal with and at the same time it’s the best teacher.

Professionally, what’s your goal?

Being able to live only from my art and thrive into my changes and evolution of my expression.

future plans?

Still working on them.