Have you ever seen art in Rennes 2 ?

Discover the art works in our university's public space.

Cultural Office - Rennes 2 University, France

Have you ever seen art in Rennes 2 ?

Over time, as new buildings have been constructed on the different campuses of the Rennes 2 University (the Villejean Campus and the La Harpe Campus in Rennes, and the Mazier Campus in Saint-Brieuc) ; all of them have become production facilities for artists of various aesthetics. 

The compilation of these art works constitute a remarkable artistic heritage.

The purpose of this Storymap is to provide the university community and its visitors elements of context and keys to a better understanding of these various creations. From projects commissioned by the Rennes 2 University itself, to cultural partnerships, and also to a program known as the "1% artistic", the art works created on the different campuses are part of an artistic approach that we invite you to discover on this page.

Enjoy !

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1

Blue Gong

 MioSHe  · 2016

Antoine Martinet, aka MioSHe, born in 1984, is a street artist with a classical background. His work, like Jérôme Bosch’s, takes you on a tour of a marvelous world filled with chimeras and other metaphorical beings. His fantastical characters come together in this lunar and poetic sphere that integrates the urban and natural environments.

O Building, Villejean campus.

2

L’Alphabet déstructuré

The Deconstructed Alphabet by graffiti artist Alexandre Lemagne is anaesthetic work influenced by hip-hop culture and its musical relation to letters. Situated between graffiti and typography, the artist has sought to bewilder the public, to break the rules and codes of reading so that everyone can relate to his work. Viewers can either « surrender to contemplation or rejection ».

D Building, Villejean campus.

3

Le Jardin

Claire Lucas · 2000

The Garden is a work by Claire Lucas, a visual artist from Rennes. Located in a tranquil natural space, consisting of an outdoor amphitheater, greenery and a sundial, one feels the passage of time and the rhythms of the seasons at every moment. It is a work that continually reinvents itself but is nevertheless fragile. To continue to exist, it must be regularly maintained, much like a home.

On the agora, Villejean campus.

4

Abysses

These three frescoes were made in 2014 by Sophie Briand-Collet, designer and artist. The artist, who has always been interested in the theme of the abyss, makes a connection between collective and imaginary representations around the theme of buried treasure. To do this, she has added fictive and elusive abyssal creatures. Her work is a “digital collage”. The artist first creates drawings by hand before scanning them. She also takes photographs of objects and creates elements using design software before assembling them digitally.

D Building, Villejean campus.

5

Opus Incertum

With Opus Incertum, Jacques Zwobada, born in 1900, mixes abstract art and ancient influences. Situated between romanticism and modernism, the work consists of a mosaic of ocher-colored marble, created in the late 1960s. The artist perished before completing his work, but his executor, André de Vilmorin, ensured that it was integrated into the building in 1969. That same year, a retrospective was dedicated to him at the Musée Rodin.

E Building, Villejean campus.

6

L'Escalier

Paul Griot · 1967

Paul Griot created this work in 1967 within the framework of the "1% artistique" law. Located just outside the B Building, the grand staircase consists of concrete reliefs on its side rails and railing. Paul Griot has produced many works in Rennes, the most famous being the l’Anneau de Moebius on the Rennes 1 campus at Beaulieu and the decoration of the Saint-Luc cathedral in the Villejean district.

B Building, Villejean campus.

7

Composition géométrique

In 2008, the geometric fresco created by Benoît Böhnke the wasinaugurated. The work covers the eastern and western walls of the université de Rennes' A4 amphitheater. Triangles, trapeziums and wide bands combine together and break apart on each wall. The patterns are highlighted by the black and purple gloss-like paint and can be distinguished from the matte surface on which they are inscribed. This composition shows the artist’s interest in graphic design and typography.

A Building, amphitheater A4, Villejean campus.

8

Résister c'est créer

Wishing to embellish the Erève building, Rennes 2 university asked Céline Floch, a graffiti artist from Brittany, to create a fresco. It was an opportunity for this artist to express herself in her favorite artform - graffiti, still often perceived as an urban and marginal practice. The university wanted this mural to be vibrant and colorful in order to break the austerity of the hall. The artist, fascinated by the sea and its chimeras, depicts the life of the building by associating with each surrounding entity, university restaurant, organisations, etc., a character that is side by side with sirens, an iconographic theme which recurs throughout his work.

Érève Building, Villejean campus.

9

Entre autres

Aurélie Godard · 2014

Entre Autres is an invitation by the artist to occupy the space. These blocks of cement posed on the green grass adhere, by color, to the landscape. Blue and green were the colors chosen to play on this camouflage effect. Created in 2014, the installation is part of the aesthetic research done by Aurélie Godard around geometric shapes.

Between L and S Buildings, Villejean campus.

10

Polyptyque photographique

Sandrine Ferret, Bruno Elisabeth, Sébastien Boyer, Denis Briand · 2011

These four photographs evoke different images of the S building. They were made for the inauguration of the building in the fall of 2011. The artistic approach varies according to each artist. Viewing the work, one can see their interest in the question of the particular landscape, the treatment of memory as a guardian of the building’s history, or the scientific approach of selection.

S Building, amphitheater S1, Villejean campus.

11

De Klein à Caillebotte

Renovations on the facade of the university library were carried out during the first edition of the Ateliers de Rennes - Biennale d’art d'art contemporain in 2008. The theme of the edition was centered on "Crossing values" and examined the relationship between art and business. Bernard Brunon‘s work for the renovation included painting the non-visible concrete parts that punctuate the library’s facade with eleven different colors. He uses reflections and light to color the underside of the panels: "I wanted to apply colors in such a way that it did not completely obscure the architecture, but instead enhanced it."

BU, Villejean campus.

12

Une idée percutante

Impassioned by street art, Paul Dolleans, aka Mya, is a member of an art collective and engaged in local organizations and the community. He hopes to further develop graffiti as an art form and works in Rennes and other cities of Ille-et-Vilaine. This 9 meter high fresco, created in 2016 as part of the "Urban Odyssey", is a representation of the human spirit and its mechanics.

BU, Villejean campus.

13

Couche Cornée III

Couche Cornée III is part of a series of sculptures which began in 2016, carried out as part of the biennial OFF du campus. Darta Sidere’s piece presents the body as a plastic material. The black panels are reminiscent of solar panels which, like the skin, capture light according to different times of the day. Born in 1990, Darta Sidere is a contemporary artist and sculptor of latvian origin who studied plastic arts at Rennes 2. She now works and lives in Rennes and exhibits all over the world.

Close to P Building, Villejean campus.

14

Natural Mystic

Averi et Marko 93 · 2017

Located in the Mazier campus parking lot in Saint-Brieuc, this colorful fresco, commissioned in 2017 by the university, immediately catches the eyes of passersby. The piercing eyes of the leopard in the center, as well as the flat, energetic and colorful lines, contrast with the gloom of the parking lot. The animals consist of a superposition of calligraphic characters. Thus, the letter, the symbol, are not used to give meaning to a word but constitute a texture and give meaning to the fur of the feline and the feathers of the parrot.

Located in the Mazier campus parking.

15

Sculpture monumentale

Erwan Le Bon · 2013

Located at the entrance of the campus, the Monumental Sculpture by Erwan Le Bon is 5.70 meters high. Made up of two tons of shiny stainless steel, it offers a mirror-like reflection to viewers, all the while displaying its upward-reaching lines toward the sky. While solemn, it fits perfectly into the surrounding environment. Erwan Le Bon remarked that he was inspired by this environment, “by the surrounding structure, in order to integrate it into the architectural ensemble”.

Located at the entrance of the campus Mazier.

16

Toni Morrison

Christian Guémy, alias C215, is an important representative of contemporary street art. Famous for his graffiti art throughout the world, he visited Rennes 2 University in 2019 to create a portrait of Toni Morrison, the year she died. The portrait is reflective of the career of the winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature: that is to say, immense. Thanks to C215’s work, students on campus can contemplate a great woman of letters.

L Building, Villejean campus.

17

Le jeu infini des formes

Charlotte Durand et association Tout Atout · 2015

This work, The infinite game of shapes, is the result of a partnership between the artist Charlotte Durand and the young people of the organization Tout Atout. The wallpaper highlights the motif and stamping technique. The theme of the work represents an interplay of the motif in different forms in space. It can be combined with other motifs, juxtaposed but also spread over a large surface area such as this wallpaper.

L Building, Villejean campus.

18

The invisible CO2 hand

This work, visible only from the sky, plays with our perception of Art. The constraints of its creation and production make it a performance art piece. The two Spanish artists question the way we see the world around us. At first, we may think that this work escapes our gaze, but it is simply addressed to an aerial view, that of planes and even satellites. It also serves to sensitize viewers on issues such as our current environmental condition and neo-liberal economy...

On the roof of M Building, Villejean campus.

19

Fresque sans titre

This is the second time that Graffiti artist MYA has been invited to create and share his work at Rennes 2. This fresco piece, for which he was given carte-blanche, is located on the first floor of the Erève building. It covers the walls of the relaxation room and the stairway that leads to it for the appreciation of the visitor. His creation is related to Une idée percutante, present on the façade of the Bibliothèque Universitaire Centrale (Central University Library).

Erève Building, Villejean campus.

20

Sans titre n°4

This sculpture was donated to Rennes 2 University by Renán Calvo Chaves in recognition of his time spent studying in Rennes. Created in 2015, it represents three anthropomorphic forms that dialogue in the heart of a tree. The aim of the artist is to encourage the viewer to reflect on the symbolic concepts related to the tree, including life, death, evolution and liberation. The open space in the upper part evokes these questions as well as questions related to origins and growth.

N Building, Villejean campus.

21

Paréidolie, le regard des choses

Within the framework of the 1% for Art plan, Christelle Familiari created a composite piece for the MSHB. It is composed of schist sculptures, a text written by the poet Fabrice Reymond which is reproduced on the windows of the building, and a collection of shale stones resembling human and animal forms. Earthenware copies of the stones will be offered to the winners of MSHB research grants. This ensemble poetically evokes a back-and-forth relationship between research in the humanities and research in the plastic arts.

Maison des sciences de l'homme en Bretagne (MHSB).

22

L'Homme vit debout

Within the framework of the 1% for Art plan, Luc Peire has created a fresco characteristic of his work on verticality. "Verticality is a form specific to humanity, particularly when you look at what our species has built throughout the ages. Unlike animals, man lives upright. He builds vertically. For me, verticality is life, space, non-limitation. It is about going beyond the confines of the canvas, reaching the infinite vertical, the unlimited. The vertical is also the simplest, most expressive form. It dominates our lives ”.

La Harpe Campus.

Information

All data are from the book “Avez-vous déjà vu l'art à Rennes 2 ? », which could not have seen the light without the important research and written contributions of the 2017-2018 and 2019-2020 students of the Master’s program in European Heritage Mediation and their teacher, Lenaïg Gourmelen.

This work has been initiated by the Rennes 2 University’s Cultural Services Office under the coordination of its director Sarah Dessaint. 

Layout and graphic creation by Benoît Gaudin, based on an editorial proposal made by the students.

Contact | Université Rennes 2 - Service culturel : s-culturel@univ-rennes2.fr

culture.service.univ-rennes2.fr

Have you ever seen art in Rennes 2 ?