2024 poster: Paul Rousteau brings Roland-Garros to the Seine

“I wanted to show tennis invading Paris”

Roland-Garros is Paris, and Paris is Roland-Garros. This is the central theme that Paul Rousteau adopted when designing the 45th official poster for the Porte d’Auteuil-based tournament. “I wanted to represent Paris, but also the characteristic colour of a clay court. For example, I thought about putting the court on a wall, on a street, on a building covered with red clay, with lines, or even a bird’s eye view… A city, seen from above, is usually grey, but here I imagined it to be the ochre colour of Roland-Garros. Then, I fell upon the idea of depicting the River Seine,” the artist explained.

This idea led the 38-year-old artist to use artificial intelligence as part of his creative process. “I didn’t have time to take any photos during the tournament. I had loads of ideas in my head, but they were often impossible to realise in photographs, so I decided to use artificial intelligence. For me, it was an excuse to make these impossible ideas a reality, because I really wanted to show tennis invading Paris.”

This was a first for the tournament as well as for the artist, whose career has been inspired by impressionism and pointillism. After spending a long time familiarising himself with this new tool, he repainted the image supplied by AI, dot by dot, using a colour palette.

A nod to the 2024 Olympic Games

This magnificent piece perfectly blends the photographer’s colourful world with the emblems of tennis and the Parisian Grand Slam: the court, the ball and the supremacy of the red clay. Enhanced by the sunrise or sunset, the tennis court appears, as though transparent, on the water of the Seine. This emblematic symbol of the French capital was not chosen at random by Paul Rousteau, who is the first artist to have put Paris in the spotlight on a Roland-Garros poster. “I also wanted to give a nod to the Olympic Games and the Paris 2024 opening ceremony, which will take place on the Seine,” he confirmed.

A successful nod and a final result that, he hopes, will touch the hearts of all tennis fans. “It was a shock to see these colours and a pleasure to see a sunrise or sunset emerge. It’s something that makes me feel very alive and happy. I try to surprise people, and that gives them good vibes,” he added.

More about the artist

Born in 1985, Paul Rousteau spent his school years at an alternative school in Auvergne. Thanks to this experience, he developed a permanent habit of observing and trying to understand the world around him. He went on to study at the Saint-Luc art school, in Belgium, then at the famous Vevey photography school in Switzerland. Paul Rousteau explores the limits of photography and our perceptions. His art, which is made up of optical illusions, navigates between digital art and pictorial matter. On the borderline of abstract and sacred art, his colourful and joyous images reveal the artist’s mission to “sublimate the visible and show the invisible”. From portraits to landscapes, his dreamlike and contemplative visuals have been used by major brands, popular magazines and museums. His latest exhibition, "Paul, la plage et les peintres", can be seen until March 2024 at the Villa Noailles in Hyères.