Meet Roxane Revon | Artist & Scenographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Roxane Revon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Roxane, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I think about risks as a way to open and develop possibilities. As a stage director, scenographer or visual artist, I’ve thought of many shows, sets and sculptures that will probably never be materialized but, in order to develop and enrich my imagination, I need to take risks. I prefer to create and develop projects before being certain of their realisation, rather than stay in a role where my possibilities are only driven by others. As D’Artagnan says in “The three Musketeers : “difficulties don’t scare me, I only fear impossibilities”.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started my artistic career as a stage director a decade ago in New York (coming from France) and, after a few years, I found myself limited in my aesthetic experiments by the production and management process. Little by little, I felt drained by the directing and teaching practice. I noticed though that my main excitement came from building sets for some of my projects. When I’m in an empty theater space (especially alone), my imagination grows and I feel a genuine freedom and energy. I understood that I needed to take a shift in my career but I was only able to do it two years ago, when covid forced me to take a step back. I made strong decisions for my life and artistic practice and a few months later I was accepted as an artist in residence at the LMCC Art Center on Governors Island.

I mainly work now on scenography, installations, prints and drawings, setting atmospheres that would allow for a different time and space to appear. My current work is an attempt to develop our mental imagery of nature. In my “Planthroposcene” multimedia installations, inspired by anthropologist and activist Natasha Myers, I try to stage new ways to see and seed plant/people relations. Using my stage director skills, I play with the transparency of reused acrylic materials to form an ever growing piece. The plant’s roots, at the center of a rather theatrical installation, are developing and vibrating among human activities, forming a “wander” that gets the audience to enter into another world and temporality.

These days, I’m particularly excited to develop these visuals as a scenographer for opera (“Cosi Fan Tutte” by Mozart at the Kimball Theater) and ballet in 2022!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love so many parts of New York City that it will be tough to condense everything in a week but I think I would start with the Noguchi Museum and a Greek fish restaurant in Queens or some galleries and restaurant in Bushwick to avoid Manhattan the first night. Then, of course, I’ll propose to see some historical sites and landmarks such as Ellis Island, the Empire State building or the Brooklyn Bridge. We’ll go for a nice walk on Governors Island, in Prospect Park or Central Park. I’d also love to spend some time in small cocktail bars such as the Binc or St Eve’s cocktail in Brooklyn. In terms of Museums, we’ll go to the Met, Moma, and the Frick Collection upper east side. I also think that going to Chelsea on a Thursday evening to Galleries openings could be fun. Finally, if the weather isn’t too bad, I’ll take a train in Grand Central to see the beautiful Hudson valley, to the WaveHill mansion in Riverdale or the Dia Museum in Beacon.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
To everyone I met

Website: www.roxanerevon.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roxane_revon/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roxane-r-7ba57455/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roxane.revon