Gilles Brusset, "visual arts" winner of the 2023 season of the Citadel of Ajaccio

Artists, visual artists, photographers, videographers, architects, design professionals... were invited to propose a unique vision of the site for the creation of temporary facilities in the moats of the Citadel and the creation of an artistic installation related to the theme. of the Mediterranean. For the “visual arts” call for creation, the jury selected Gilles Brusset, visual artist and landscape architect.

A third year of activation

After an assessment of the year 2022 which was presented to the municipal council on April 13, 2023, the City of Ajaccio and the SPL AMETARRA are launching the third year of activation of the Citadel Miollis. The challenge this year is to strengthen programmatic tests, to open new spaces to the public, to offer varied events accessible to all. To do this, three calls for applications were launched.

The first concerns the operation of the guinguette at the Citadel. The second and third calls for projects concern the creative component. Artists, design and space planning professionals, architects, sculptors… were thus invited to put their talent and passion at the service of the Citadel through two calls for creation launched last February.

In order to accommodate new activities, to offer a new space accessible to the public and therefore a better experience for visitors, the SPL wanted to open the moat to the public by creating a new ephemeral access in the form of an artistic gesture to the entrance to the Citadel but also by proposing the design and manufacture of street furniture and the enhancement of the existing sports ground. The actors of the project have called on various professionals to restore an artistic, unique and original vision, which will integrate with the site and its environment, and will facilitate the uses and daily practices of the public in this exceptional place. The winner of the call will be announced in May. At the same time, the call for visual arts creation aimed to select an artist to create an ephemeral installation in the public space of the Citadelle Miollis.

Gilles Brusset, winner of the call for visual arts creation

For the call for visual arts creation, the jury selected Gilles Brusset. The common thread of this residence is to create a signal work and an invitation for visitors to enter the Citadel, so long closed to the public.

The production and installation of the work will take place from April 15 to June 5, for an inauguration scheduled for June 8, 2023. Dume Marcellesi and Prisca Meslier, who notably worked on the Bonifacio biennial, will be in charge of curating the exhibition. In response to the call for creation, Gilles Brusset proposes a work that plays with the landscape, pays homage to the monument and makes it visible from afar.

Gilles Brusset is a visual artist and landscape architect, graduated from the schools of architecture of Paris Belleville and landscape of Versailles. Several of his works proceed by subtraction, erasing existing matter, creating voids, creating spaces and digging out intervals and interstices. Light seems to pass through floors and walls. A third dimension settles there: a new space like vertigo. The works invite the gaze to look at something other than themselves, to stroll through the landscape. They arise like flashes, impalpable apparitions or fleeting moments. Changing according to the movements of the observer and the movements of the meteors, they offer opportunities for presence in the sensitive world.