Roland Cros

For a long time Roland Cros used photography to meet others. In the 1980s, he discovered and documented different worlds: bullfighting, rugby, bodybuilding and the punk movement, notably through the Bérurier Noir group. At the same time, during his career as a documentary filmmaker, he studies issues related to territories and their borders. This allows him to travel the world, but above all to meet its inhabitants who nourish his creativity and his imagination.

During the 2000s, he began to practice engraving on different media to share his perspective on the great upheavals of our time. This medium, more expressive, allows him to oppose a resistance to the cult of money, to the policies of control and oppression, to the dangers of frenzied globalization and its consequences on our environment. The works of this period bear witness to his libertarian commitment, revealing a host of characters and animals in contact with a world that is sometimes very dark, but where humor (often black) and human solidarity offer alternatives.

After ten years of exploration of engraving in the workshop, he swapped the gouge for the chainsaw, adopted the pseudonym of Gravomane and unleashed a resolutely punk energy on large wooden panels. He then crisscrossed France to create frescoes or unique installations, always striving to make his works resonate with the exhibition space. These engravings gradually become performances, by the unusual nature of the places and the tools used, in which the spectators can attend or participate.

Since 2015, his work has evolved into the creation of wooden volumes that invite the public to “dream or worry” in contact with his works. For each installation, the artist follows the same approach: “first I discover the place and I am inspired by what surrounds me to develop a dialogue between the landscape and its inhabitants. These interactions that I try to reveal between a territory and the imagination of the people who inhabit it interest me a lot ”.