From Ujan Dutta

03.06.2016 - 23.06.2016

My stay at Trélex has been a wonderfully enriching experience. It served as a lovely change of scene for me, as my personal work was getting interrupted by my day to day professional activities.

Up until now I only just begun to compile a body of work, following my first exhibition, in 2012 and was failing miserably at it. My visit has inspired me to rekindle my enthusiasm for wanting to build an entirely new body of work.

Chandra

A setting such as Trélex inspires you to try new things, experiment and most importantly have fun. Up until now, my work focused on mainly Hindu mythology, and a study of some of the main characters of the mythological structure. This formed the basis of my first exhibition. Since then, I've been trying to expand my own universe of characters, places, and creatures. I have been trying to build a series of paintings, based on the association of each Hindu god to a 'Vahana' or an animal usually as a vehicle to his/her respective god. This concept gave me the opportunity to experiment with lots of new characters and themes, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. My work at the Trélex residency however allowed to me to further build my roster of unique mythological figures.

Garuda

I worked on a panoramic illustration depicting an iconic scene from the 'Ramayana'. Ram, along with an army of apes and monkeys builds a bridge made out of floating rocks between the south-eastern coast of India and 'Lanka', to rescue his bride, Sita, who is being held captive by the demon-king Raavana. I wanted to make this illustration a long-format horizontal panorama, something I hadn't fully tried before. I enjoyed adding an unreal scale to an already unbelievable scene, as I love detailing in my work.

Moon

Trélex has been an amazing place to work in. I have loved every bit of it. Nina's studio space has a great character and feeling to it, which really gives you a great opportunity to really focus on your work. I enjoyed travelling around Switzerland as well. Getting around is really easy and efficient. The Residency is very well located, just a few minutes away from the picturesque Nyon, and between Lausanne and Geneva, which are always fun to visit. Nina and Abi have been lovely hosts. My only regret is that I didn't spend more time learning new art mediums from them. I would be lying if I said that what I actually miss most is Nina's dog, by far one of the most adorable living creatures I've ever seen. 

I highly recommend the residency to any creative person, aspiring or otherwise, to visit the Trélex residency. I will treasure every minute of my experience, and look forward to going back as soon as I can.