Peter Roesch's 'Orange permanent' at Galerie Decimus Magnus Art

Swiss artist Peter Roesch (born 1950, based in Lucerne) presented 'Orange permanent' at Galerie Decimus Magnus Art in Bordeaux from December 2, 2005 to January 14, 2006. The exhibition transformed the gallery space by painting the walls orange, a color that simultaneously represents itself and triggers rhythmic expansions and contractions. Roesch punctuated this energetic field with fragments cut from his own unsatisfactory works, which evoke landscapes, bodies, figures, and interlacings—forms both compact and liquid. These pieces form a plural phrase whose elements do not unify but coexist in difference, oscillating between painting's resistance and its disappearance. The installation refuses a clear path or net, instead fostering an irruption of openness and pure expenditure. Roesch's approach compels viewers to perpetually reconsider where to begin, as familiar memories become alien through novel distribution and combination. The work stages a settling of accounts between imposed figures and breaking points, inviting an after-the-fact acknowledgment that is more pleasurable than painful. Critic Didier Arnaudet described the experience as being on the threshold, hearing the sounds of a violent fight but seeing only the wounds.