Dentrocasa | Eric Roux-Fontaine

An art that moves through landscapes and allows itself to be moved by them

Eric Roux-Fontaine was born in Savoy in 1966 to a French father and an Italian mother. After graduating from the Beaux-Arts in Saint-Étienne, he worked as an art director in several communication agencies before devoting himself entirely to his artistic career. I interviewed him for the readers of DENTROCASA

I saw your works at the PUNTO SULL’ARTE Gallery in Varese, but I would like to get to know you better both as a man and as an artist, because your world fascinates me and at the same time raises many questions for which I have no answers…

“I have always felt the need to connect my painting with the outside world. My interest in nomadic cultures dates back to childhood, when I spent a great deal of time among Roma communities, first in France, then throughout Eastern Europe and northern India. These stays awakened in me a different perception of my surroundings. I believe this marked my artistic path toward magical realism. Since then, my many visits to indigenous communities—including those of the Caribbean (in Costa Rica and Panama), the desert nomads of Rajasthan, and the Bushmen of Africa—have increasingly nurtured my interest in the relationship between humans and nature. These journeys, besides being a valuable opportunity to discover other cultures, are also a chance to come into contact with different artistic practices. We often believe that we pass through landscapes, but in reality it is the landscapes that pass through us, leaving an imprint on our memory. It is from this imprint, from this oscillation between the imaginary of territories and the territories of the imaginary, that my work begins.”