What’s left?
To 31 July
What’s left?
“What will remain of this strange period during which most of us found ourselves confined for several months?
On the initiative of Filles de la photo and the Diagonal network, which have set up e-readings of portfolios, I immersed myself in reading the three hundred files on offer! This delight is certainly due to my feeling of rejection of this situation. Yes, in spite of everything, I’ll be going out to meet and discover new artistic ideas, current artistic concerns and questions, artists…
So, just before the long-awaited closure of La Villa Pérochon in 2021, here’s the positive side of the virus: the exhibition of works by Claire DORN, Myriem KARIM, Raphaëlle PERIA and Clarisse REBOTIER.
What remains of Myriem Karim’s use of old, out-of-date film, of Raphaëlle Peria’s scraped, excavated and partially emptied photos? What remains of the testimonies collected by Claire Dorn of those moments when pain intersects with the happiness of birth? And what will be left of humanity on our planet in 2054… Clarisse Rebotier’s fictions? As you browse through the works presented by these four artists, perhaps, like me, emotion will bring us together.” Patrick Delat
Practical info
Claire Dorn
Amazones, paroles de femmes
This work was born of an encounter with Xènia, mother of a baby boy, who several months after giving birth was unable to feel serene about the C-section she had undergone. It was as if the question of C-sections was shrouded in taboo. Physiological, psychological and relational questions then arose… I wanted to ask these questions of other women, to hear their stories. Under what conditions were their caesarean sections performed? How were they prepared for this surgical act? How were these patients treated during the operation? How did these mothers experience the C-section, before and after the operation? What is their relationship with childbirth? What impact does childbirth have on their relationship with their child? How do they feel about having given birth by Caesarean section? This scar is much more than a simple mark on the body: it is in the intimacy of women’s flesh that political issues are played out.
Myriem Karim
Isearched for your elusive wave
Self-taught, her photographic work questions our relationship with place and matter by combining poetry and photography, two mediums that she considers independent in their practice but complementary. Her photography always tells the story of a body and a landscaped space, highlighting their interactions and reciprocity, a look inside a landscape, an observation of uninhabited, natural places that questions the relationship between traces and mutual imprints. Her images revisit places she has already photographed on random peregrinations(Je suis venu ici, already 2018). This repetition is an integral part of her artistic approach, and the vagaries of silver photography allow her to experiment, notably with out-of-date film.
J’ai cherché ton onde fuyante is represented in this exhibition by 30 photographs. The artist takes up the theme of nature, using water as a common thread. She deals with the modification of natural landscapes by water, and uses photography to leave a trace of these changes.
Raphaëlle Peria
Hopea Odorata ; Narcissus in Flores ; Fluo beaching
La Villa Pérochon is home to three series by Raphaëlle Peria. One of them, Hopea Odorata, depicts Cambodian temples trapped in lush natural surroundings.
Narcissus Flores evokes endangered plants in swamps.
Fluo beaching deals with the collapse of coral ecosystems due to human pollution of the seas. For this work, the artist was supposed to travel to Tahiti, but the confinement forced her to return instead to the aquariums of Paris, where she was unable to photograph everything she wanted. To complete her work, she took royalty-free photographs of coral reefs on the Internet.
In her various works, she scratches the material to give volume to the photographic paper. To do this, she uses scalpels, a dentist’s milling machine and other surgical tools. This method makes these images unique.
Clarisse Rebotier
2054
2054 is an unusual series that questions our identity and what it means to be human, through side-stepping, shifting, and with the artist’s characteristic touch of humor and fantasy. An end-of-the-world atmosphere: rats, looking human – too human – wander alone on a devastated Earth. Combining humor and tragedy, this satirical memento mori is inspired by dances of death, and reminds us of our finitude. Because, even though they’re dead and contorting, there’s something cute about these rats… They’re like us: beautiful and tragic at the same time. Combining silver photography with a novel form of naturalization, this series was produced during a residency in partnership with the taxidermist at the Paris Natural History Museum. The artist created a technique of “ephemeral organic sculpture” that only photography could immortalize. The animals’ bodies are held in position for a very short time before collapsing. Shooting has to be done in a hurry to capture the scenes.
Like the damaged world we need to take care of, these funny little fragile beings are really suspended, on the verge of disappearing. Ironic anticipation? On a planet where life has disappeared? This series was the subject of an exceptional portfolio published by HEMERIA.