Sharing the studio of the painter Roland Buraud for a few months was very enriching for my artistic research. I was working on a series of paintings on the city of New York when, in July 2008, Roland invited me to come and paint in his studio during his absence. I go there almost every day.

When he returned five weeks later, observing what I had achieved – a canvas that was about to be finished – he suggested that I continue working in the studio that we were reorganizing for this purpose. Knowing his need for solitude to create, I was surprised and, delighted, I accepted.

I had met Roland Buraud four years earlier, in 2004, at a group exhibition in Paris in which he was participating. I was struck by his painting, these intertwined, intertwined, damaged fusional bodies, levitating in an indefinite space, some of whose figures "without figures" made me think of animals emptied of their entrails, in tatters, suspended in space, giving themselves "to the gaze" as an end. We had a long discussion about his work.

Following our discussions, he suggested that I come and see his entire body of work. I went to his studio in the heart of Bastille on a Sunday afternoon. The “encounter” with his painting – the painter – happened that day, in front of the immensity of his paintings, in what they show, lead to feeling, the reflection they provoke, dark, powerful, like a call to silence. And then the man in his infinite modesty, his elegance in words and… the pains. From then on, a friendship was born. Our discussions, our complicity, lasted until “his flight”. My painting was different from his. Eclectic, his artistic curiosity always pushed him to be interested in various pictorial forms. During the few months in the studio, we worked in two adjoining rooms, respecting our silences, our work. We had a mutual, constant look at each other’s work. We sometimes painted to the sound of Schubert, Schuman, Mahler… During our breaks over coffee, we watched the progress of each other’s work. We exchanged our impressions. Very open, he liked to receive the sensations that his work aroused. I sometimes shared my doubts with him when I noticed an error on my canvas.

Never complacent, he would advise me or encourage me: "you'll find it!", he would tell me. We visited many museums, exhibitions and galleries together. Sometimes we totally disagreed on the work of certain contemporary painters. When annoyed, he would say, "open your eyes". He loved to share his knowledge, understand, transmit. This anecdote comes back to me: during our last exhibition at the Louvre, we went to see Italian painting, I was surprised to stop on details in some paintings, I shared my observations with him, smiling, he then said to me: "you're growing up"! We shared his space, our worlds, laughter and silences, tables with friends, sometimes very lively discussions. His observation of the world, his points of view, our exchanges, allowed me to enrich my reflection on my artistic work and to take a new look at it.

Michele Tassi.

Suspended time. Uncertain balance. Between two, places of departure or negotiations, of waiting or abandonment. Are we before or after the event? Before or after the drama? Is it the premonition of an upheaval or its observation? Michèle Tassi's painting goes beyond the urban archetypes on which it is based. These parking lots, these deserted streets, these hermetic buildings are an invitation to go beyond the intangible of all perception; the apparent mystery of the facades and directions that only offer themselves as propositions, take us by their strangeness, to what we see of ourselves, to what we perceive of others, as much as to our origins and our possible future.

ARNAUD BEDOUET
Playwright