This is a first which was inaugurated at the Abattoirs de Toulouse contemporary art museum; the coming together of two major institutions and their photographic collections. A rich and not really known heritage, some two hundred and fifty works drawn equally from each of the collections. They were formed respectively on their own criteria, the Château d’eau embracing all photographic practices and the Abattoirs favoring more experimental or visual images. Lauriane Gricourt, newly appointed head of the museum, and Christian Caujolle artistic director of the Toulouse gallery ensured the selection, which is necessarily not exhaustive. Skillfully arranged on a route of 9 spaces, the images are given to us to see under as many themes linked to photographic practices: Sur le vif, for the immediacy of photography; Réalités parallèles, on the different languages of images; Double Je, self-portraits; Perspectives-lieux and Perspectives–lignes, framing, composition or even sequences and geometric lines etc… If Christian Caujolle and Le Château d’eau are well known in the photography world, it was interesting to get to know Lauriane Gricourt who has therefore led the Abattoirs since the start of 2024.
Can you summarize your training and career path for us?
Lauriane Gricourt : I trained as an art historian, having studied at the Louvre school, and specializing in the history of performance in the USSR. I started working in several institutions in Paris, the Maillol museum, the Carmignac foundation. After being a senior curator at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art for 6 years, I joined the Abattoirs as a curator in 2022.
Were you in a photo department at the Abattoirs?
L.G.: There isn’t really a photography sector at the museum; photography is part of all the collections, even if we regularly acquire this medium, like recently Ouka Lele and Miguel Trillo for example, who appear in the exhibition.
What is the image purchasing process?
L.G.: So, Les Abattoirs is a museum and a FRAC (Occitanie Regional Contemporary Art Fund) so there are two collections but which are shared and managed more and more in correlation, with two acquisition committees but common axes enrichment of funds. Our tropism, which is more oriented towards the Spanish and Ibero-American artistic scene, creates a link between our two collections.
There had never been a purely photographic exhibition of this magnitude?
L.G.: Not as monumental, no; in 2021 there was the Revue Noire exhibition which was linked to the magazine of the same name, but it was not of as greatly important.
Does the project initiative lie with both institutions?
L.G. : The idea was already in the works when I was curator, the foundations had been laid with Christian Caujolle, and we had planned that Le Château d’eau should be under construction this year; the opportunity was found, and we curated the exhibition together. It was also very interesting to explore our collection through the prism of photography, with a particular typology of works.
Is the exhibition made up equally of your two funds, Abattoirs and Château d’eau?
L.G.: Yes. There are approximately 5000 photographic works at the Château d’Eau and we also have 5000 works including 500 photographs; as we shared the exhibition, there is therefore a small part of the Château d’eau fund and a larger part of our collection. Christian Caujolle is also very happy to be able to release certain series which have not been shown for a long time, Kishin Shinoyama among others, as well as the originals of certain legendary photo books.
How did you set up the exhibition route?
L.G.: We chose to distribute the works according to the major practices of photography rather than chronologically; but we still find important milestones in photography throughout the spaces, and certain images that have marked the history of photography such as August Sander and Doisneau in the portraits, or Shinoyama on the question of bodies. The composition of the exhibition rather brought out themes such as the major photographic trends or movements and ways of seeing reality, the relationship with the image.
The variety of looks is astonishing, we even find photojournalism images at the Abattoirs
L.G.: It’s true, at the Abattoirs we favor an artistic look, but when it comes to reporting or documentary photography, there are also photographers who deal with societal or environmental issues, like Matthias Bruggmann or Alfredo Jaar, who maintain an aesthetic approach.
The different themes of the spaces are also in dialogue and their borders are quite porous
L.G.: It’s difficult to fix an image on a very specific theme, you can very well find certain artists in different fields; it also shows all the malleability of reality I find, photographers have this gift of being able to manipulate reality, while leaving open interpretation and imagination.
By Jean-Jacques Ader
« Ouvrir les yeux » exhibition of the photographic collections of Abattoirs and the Galerie Le Château d’eau, at Abattoirs de Toulouse, from October 11, 2024 to May 18, 2025 – Information https://www.lesabattoirs.org/Expositions/ouvert- the-eyes/
https://chateaudeau.toulouse.fr/
Publication of a special edition of Connaissance des arts hors-série « Ouvrir les yeux »
