Swiss artist Maya Rochat doubly exhibited in Paris⁠

Maya Rochat has her head in the stars. Literally. For several months, she has been escaping by scanning the stars with her telescope. This vision of immensity upsets her. “Observing space, I quickly realized how beautiful and alive our planet is. Space has a slower pace but is punctuated by violent collisions. When we see the craters on the moon, it must have taken two or three good comets…” Contemplating the rings of Saturn and the lines of Jupiter, the artist continues her terrestrial work whose gigantism and immersive aspect are not without recall the cosmos.

We find her in her Lausanne workshop. In the stairwell, the monumental rolled-up canvases and the stock of overhead projectors set the tone. At Maya Rochat, the pigments mix and spread in meanders like a magical fluid. The day before, she returned from Paris where she was varnishing her project, “Poetry of the Earth”. An important step for the artist, who achieves the double whammy of a solo exhibition in an eminent institution, the European House of Photography (MEP), as well as at Galerie C.

“I have done quite a few group shows or solos in galleries and small “off spaces”, but solo in a museum abroad is a first. How to manage so many positive emotions? I am still digesting what is happening to me,” she confides.

She is delighted to share the floors of the MEP with two other artists, the Frenchwoman Rosa Joly in the studio and the Dutchwoman Rineke Dijkstra on the first floor, whose work she admires. “When I was learning photography at ECAL, I studied his work. Finding myself today exhibiting with her is great class. My work and his are not the same. For me, she is one of the best portrait painters in the classical photography sense. As for me, is it still photography? questions the visual artist.

“Without music, there is no art”

Humbly enjoying the recognition of her work, Maya Rochat is not, however, her first experience outside the country. In 2018, the prestigious Tate Modern in London presented his work in the group exhibition “Shape of Light”. Already, live painting is part of her work, which she integrates into the performance “Living In A Painting”, an organic show accompanied by sound artist Buvette. “My performance work is always music-based. Without music, there is no art. When I was at HEAD, I wrote a piece called In Da Chaise Longue with Cédric de Chasse, on which I sang over a very pop “self-composed” beat. But I quickly realized that I couldn’t be strong at everything. The experience was very cool, but it stopped there.” The artist’s association with the British museum caused a media maelstrom. Maya Rochat’s name is on everyone’s lips.

This step triggers this particular tipping point where the aura of her art precedes her. She does not burden her mind with her own notoriety, but her heart beats when faced with certain testimonies: “When young women come to see me to tell me that they like what I do and that it inspires them in their own life, it’s the greatest compliment.”

Like Alice in Wonderland, Maya Rochat opens the door to her dreamlike universe and invites anyone who wishes to follow her. Its projections invade the walls to create a new dimension that belongs only to it. Her painting, which she masters in a tight flow to better liberate it and merge with the environment in which she finds herself, is close to the stars and summons the natural elements. Comparable to a hallucinogenic experience, immersion in her art immediately makes you forget the scales of magnitude: with Maya Rochat, the macro rubs shoulders with the micro in complete harmony. Giants and elves. Your choice.

When she performs live, she puts herself fully at the service of her art. “I try to forget myself, even though I know that people are watching me. Painting is like a trance for me, it’s a meditative state. Besides, I see it on my face which becomes more concentrated. I escape physically, I am somewhere else a little. I capture what is around me and materializes in matter. I believe that art is a bit magical. I feel carried by an energy that comes from another space.”

The childhood of art

Maya Rochat spent her childhood at the Vieux Moulin de Bavois, in the canton of Vaud, surrounded by nature. A state of grace that forged his soul. “We spent ten years more or less away from society, really lost in the forest. I was in harmony with nature, that’s all I knew! The cabins, the animals, it was my delirium. I was shocked to discover the concrete world later, I had not been prepared for the violence in our society. Today, this permanent tension between nature and urbanity is felt in his art. Far from any intention of greenwashing, she is aware of the ecological issues of our time.

“An ecology without ethics does not exist. When we are able to respect humans, then perhaps we will become able to respect nature. It’s strange to see this world with bridges and mountains collapsing, cities collapsing. It’s as if our concrete world was cracking. But I refuse to be afraid, what comes after can only be better than what we have been offered during these hundred years of capitalism.

Around her, her close guard watches over her. Because his art is above all a human adventure. Her self-proclaimed fan club includes her close family and a few friends. Her faithful friend Victoria even created the Instagram page @mayarochatfanclub. “We must have around 13 followers,” she said with a burst of laughter. During the opening, she did a live performance and said to me: “No one follows me!” I laughed when I told him that the fan club was complete at the MEP. You have to have a little fun and not take these things too seriously!”

Bio express

1985 Birth in Morges

2009 Bachelor in visual communication, photography section, with honors, ECAL

2012 Master with honors, HEAD-Geneva

2015 First solo exhibition, “A Plastic Tool”, Project Space, Center for Contemporary Art, Geneva

2016 Collective exhibition, “Double Je”, Palais de Tokyo, Paris

2017 Bourse Leenaars

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Alexandre Lanz has the benefit of his initial training in the fashion sector, through which he forged the outlook that he has developed over the past twenty years on the subjects he addresses in culture, lifestyle and society.More info

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