Irving Berlin wrote “Nothing But Blue Skies” in 1926. The song could have been about the sky over New York on the morning of September 11th, 2001. The narrative of that day, broadcast live and continuously on television sets around the world, ushered in a new era in the history of media. The event and its photographic portrayal are inseparable, the first having been elaborated for and by the latter. Most of the artists in this exhibition used existing documents to offer new interpretations.
Accumulating, diverting, deconstructing or avoiding this mass of images, they have independently questioned the visual representations of the tragedy over a nearly 15-year period. Through various forms and media, “Nothing But Blue Skies” focuses not on the event and its horror, causes or consequences, but on the repetition of its image and its symbolic erosion.
Mélanie Bellue
EXHIBITION
In Part of Les Rencontres d’Arles
Nothing But Blue Skies
Looking Back at The Media’s Image of 9/11
Exhibition curators : Mélanie Bellue et Sam Stourdzé.
Texts: Jean Paul Curnier
From July 4th to September 11th, 2016
Le Capitole
13200 Arles
France
http://www.rencontres-arles.com
