Weaving poetic narratives with augmented reality

Beatrice de Fays, artist from France, develops her creations using different media: paintings, installations… Her creation, between pictorial universe and digital space, questions this tipping point between concrete space and poetic experience. She is exhibiting "Inspace… In the ruins of the city world", her work online. Inspace.ar is an exhibition of paintings weaving poetic narratives with augmented reality.

How did you get interested in arts?

I actually belong to the lineage of the family of Balthazar Francois Tasson Snel (1811-1890), who was a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. His favourite student Jean Baptiste Robie (1821-1910) was a Belgian still-life, flower and landscape painter.

Jean Robie studied at the Brussels Academy with Balthazar Tasson and travelled extensively throughout Europe, visiting Italy, Spain, France and Germany, and further journeys took him to the Middle East. But he stayed for the longest time in India and described his travels in the book 'Les Debutsd'un Peintre', published in 1886.

Robie purchased a plot of land in the Chaussee de Charleroi in Saint-Gilles and it adjoined that of my great grandfather Balthazar Francois Tasson-Snel. The friendship between both was so deep that even after the death of Tasson Snel; Robie continued to give all his affection to the family. He bequeathed everything he owned to the Tasson Snel family in his will, the magnificent property and a large collection of paintings.

What is unique about your present collection?

These original paintings are animated through a tablet equipped with software that comes to life! They "sprinkle" out of their support and articulate through a vocal and musical narrative.

Each painting reveals the universe of a figure (a character or an entity): the granite rock, the Buddha, the dragonfly and so on. This universe consists of twelve paintings, twelve stories, twelve figures, all in search of their own truth. Inspace, a considerable achievement in the creative use of technology, opens up new and unusual possibilities for viewers to engage with paintings.

Although the work is still in progress, the artist has generously contributed three paintings and their A.R. Representations to this exhibition.

Who is your inspiration?

Through my lineage, I have two 'Buddha' paintings from the collection of Jean Robie.They are my inspi-ration.

What is your message to the artist community?

For me, painting is a transformation of energy. So always feel your creation and transform it onto the canvas. Then only one would succeed in conveying the required message or feelings through his or her paintings.

What are your future plans?

There is a lot of responsibility on me as I come from such a big lineage. I want to discover the rich culture of India and also give a new direction to my journey in arts. Each time I visit India, I am in the process of re-discovering myself.