Phoenix, Noémie Goudal
Fascinated by the geological history of the planet and the different climates that have reigned there, Noémie Goudal enjoys undoing and reweaving the links that unite being and non-human. From his complex prints and films, touching on theatrical performance, always emerges a luxuriant vegetation when it is not a question of rocky environments. With this poetry of his own, the artist transforms reality and deploys illusions to undermine the indexicality of the image as a marker of truth. The spatio-temporal immensity and its variations, taken in a perpetual momentum, thus question our approach to ecology and testify to the need to better understand the environment which is ours.
A feminist vanguard
After a decade circulating throughout Europe, Une Avant-garde féministe has taken up its summer quarters at the Mécanique générale . In the 1970s, the artistic took off in a context of social and sexual revolution. Nearly 200 works, from the Verbund collection in Vienna, sketch out this history of art – often relayed to the margins – in the light of those that have upset it. The exhibition testifies to the inventiveness of 71 women artists who, through photographs, but also videos and performance, knew how to denounce ordinary sexism, societal inequalities and patriarchal power structures to propose a new "image of wife ". Among them are important figures of the 8th art movement such as ORLAN, Cindy Sherman or Ana Mendieta to name but a few.
Evergreen, Lukas Hoffman
Hidden on the floor of the city's Monoprix, Evergreen unveils two sets of monochrome shots by Lukas Hoffmann. For the first, the Swiss-Australian artist walked the streets of Berlin to capture imprecise movements, without ever looking through the viewfinder of his medium. These suspended moments of existence contrast with the second series, also taken in the view camera. Here, the hurried wanderings replace the slowness of the precise gesture. Captured from all angles, a damaged wall or the faded letters of a container decompose to the point of abstraction and invite those who contemplate to exercise their gaze.
Waha (Oasis), Seif Kousmate
Originally from Morocco, Seif Kousmate raises a major problem that is rife in his native land: the disappearance of oases, which are essential to the survival of local populations. The overexploitation of their raw materials, coupled with more and more numerous episodes of drought, are pushing the new generations to flee to other horizons. In Waha – an Arabic term for these springs in the middle of the desert – the former engineer and self-taught photographer materializes the degradation of water points. Using acid and vestiges of endemic flora, he contaminates his images and creates a poetic disorder. Content and form are then superimposed in a noticeable way.
Did Nothing Wrong , Mika Sperling
Mika Sperling exhibits sensitive and resilient work at the Eglise des Frères Prêcheurs. In I Did Nothing Wrong , the photographer intends to break a family and societal taboo. She tackles her grandfather's crimes in three stages. Shots immortalized on the road that separates the house of childhood and the house of the culprit are juxtaposed with authentic family photos, cut out and rearranged. At the end of the journey, a fictional story features a deceased relative and an artist waiting for answers, a reinvented scenario that reflects an attempt at reconciliation with her painful past.
And Yet She Turns
In And Yet She Turns brings together several photographers who share their vision of what life is like in the United States in the 21st century. Looks confront each other and begin a singular dialogue that crystallizes the complexity of existence. The post-documentary style, common to the nine exhibited artists, shows more than it tells a multitude of realities, sometimes banal, sometimes out of the ordinary. Far from getting bogged down with any opinions or simplistic narratives, everyone thus participates in establishing a freedom that is sometimes disconcerting, but which aspires towards an authenticity of being.
In His Time, Romain Urhausen
Unknown in France, Romain Urhausen has nevertheless had a most prolific career. His photographic writing, resolutely oriented towards experimentation, stands out for a singular oscillation between the French humanist school and the subjective German school of the 1950s and 1960s. The Luxembourg artist thus enjoyed studying the structure of his compositions with humor and delicacy to better go beyond the more classic representations of the daily life of his time. His unexpected framings and stark contrasts stand out from the works of his peers, also exhibited here and there on the walls of the Espace Van Gogh in order to generate new “chosen affinities”.
Lee Miller, Professional Photographer (1932-1945), Lee Miller
Alternately model, icon of surrealism, fashion photographer and war correspondent, Lee Miller has had a busy life. Her great work, crowned with success, nevertheless remained in the shadows until its rediscovery in the 1990s. The eponymous exhibition looks back on the prolific career of an artist whose history has preferred to remember as the one of Man Ray's muses. Working for prestigious magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair , she has worked for freedom in many ways. Behind her lens, women freed themselves from the shackles of the time. Photoreporter accredited to the US Army, she was also one of the first to document the horror of the Dachau and Buchenwald camps.
In India. 1978-1989 , by Mitch Epstein
Between 1978 and 1989, Mitch Epstein visited India eight times. There, the photographer compiled a body of extremely rich images. During his travels, he likes to capture a vast set of "sub-cultures" that his family ties allow him to understand from the inside, despite a desire to affix an outside view of these societies and the traditions that are theirs. clean. This double point of view finally delivers a testimony as complex as is this country where the codes of castes, classes and religions still clash violently with contemporary politics.
The Interposed Veil
Initiated by Fisheye, Le Voile interposé explores the potential of the immersive image. Unpublished works – signed among others by the Obvious collective or the Pussykrew duo – challenge our ability to distinguish the border between the real and the virtual, and question the future of technologies using artificial intelligence and deep learning . As an example, Joan Fontcuberta and Pilar Rosado, also hooked, were inspired by deepfakes to distort the features of politicians accused of sexual assault. In full speech, their faces then take on airs of inopportune enjoyment. Their project also continues with the experience they offer at the Cruise. In a series titled Déjà-Vu , the human gaze is this time replaced by algorithms that use recurring patterns to generate new works.
Bettina, Poem of Permanent Renewal , Bettina Grossman
The Rencontres d'Arles presents the first monographic exhibition dedicated to Bettina Grossman. The American artist has spent her life between Europe and the United States, her native country. Following a fire, she lost most of her work and tried, somehow, to rebuild herself in the mythical Chelsea Hotel. Recluse, the chance of the days makes her cross the path of Yto Barrada. The two women form a very strong relationship that will inspire them mutually. Photographs, videos, paintings, sculptures, textile designs… Bettina Grossman's creations decline geometric shapes in a self-referential system with an almost shamanic dimension.
