Chourouk Hriech – Landscapes unfold, 2024

Chourouk Hriech’s compositions combine architectural and landscape elements with plant and animal motifs in graphic narratives inspired by the history of places old and new, real and imaginary. Working in black and white, Chourouk Hriech draws what she calls her “landscape stuff”, whether it relates to urban areas or vegetation. With precise lines in Indian ink or gouache, she traces the history of “symbolic cities”, using multiple cross-sections, effects of scale and perspective. Whether on paper, on walls or on objects, her works create a hybrid universe where forms, cultures and eras merge, blend or coexist.

Chourouk Hriech’s work has been influenced by the history and geography of the former railway locomotive maintenance yards known as the Grandes Locos. It compares the architecture of La Mulatière and Lyon with that of the rest of the world. Working on both local and international scales, the artist’s maps depict urban and rural landscapes criss-crossed by birds, symbols of flight and freedom. At the confluence of the Rivers Rhône and Saône, Chourouk Hriech’s vistas conjure up tales of exchange and encounter along the transport routes that these rivers have always been.