Le Magasin de Jouets in Arles is presenting for the first time in Europe an exhibition that brings together the work of Kim Hak (Cambodia) and Jamie Maxtone-Graham (Vietnam). This exhibition is about difference, memory, humanity, memory, war, poetry, painting, photography, life, death, individual and group histories, complexities, the 40th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh. It compares the work of these two artists who enter into dialogue, passing over borders and idas. This exhibition is about two caring people who also talk to us slowly about images.
Nicolas Havette, curator
Alive by Kim Hak
“Alive” is my personal concept to reveal the intimate memory of old photos and usual objects entrusted to me by local Cambodian families, forty years after the Khmer Rouge regime.
Since I was a young boy, in Cambodia, I have often listened to my parents, siblings, and relatives as they shared their past and painful experiences. In 1975, during the fall of the Lon Nol regime, my parents, as well as families threw away many old pictures and identity cards in order to hide their backgrounds. If not, they would have been killed immediately for being educated. However some people took great risks to keep photographs to remember their loved ones and objects, which represented something important to them. All these photographs and objects are deeply significant. They are evidence of the past time in history. War can kill victims, but it cannot kill memory of the survivors. The memory should be alive, known and shared for the current research of human beings, and the preservation of heritage for the next generations. I started the series “ALIVE” from my personal family’s memory, but my purpose is to expand the project to other families throughout Cambodia. It is now a race against the clock, as living witnesses are gradually disappearing.
That Little Distance by Jamie Maxtone-Graham
“That Little Distance” is an exhibition of new works by Hanoi-based photographer Jamie Maxtone-Graham. Le Magasin de jouets shows it for the first time in Europe. Maxtone-Graham focuses on enigmatic still lifes and portraits of individuals with his own presence subdued in deep shadow, in a palette of soft, muted colors and rich textures.
« Produced during 2013 in a former State-owned and vacant pharmaceutical factory in Hanoi, Vietnam – the rough interior of the room repurposed into a daylight studio, the sole source of illumination was a large, north-facing window producing only a soft, indirect light throughout the day.
The sitters for these portraits include artists, authors, ex-patriots, poets, tourists, a gangster, mothers, gays, abled and disabled, musicians, a journalist, lesbians, a surfer, an infant, an 80 year old man, office workers, filmmakers, students, and performance artists. Without identification, they exist equally – in relation to one another and to the tightly controlled political environment, in relation to the photographer, in relation to the history of image making and to the light. These simple, quiet, scenes belie the profound themes at play where history, art history, prejudice, human relationships, nature and time itself collide in small performances of stillness.
With a nod to 17th century Dutch painting and the tradition of memento mori, the dramatic light in the photos lends the work a sacred and serene air.
In late December 2013, the city authorities denied access to the former factory to all who had been using it as either place of business, home, studio or art space and within a week, the entire site was vacated. Only the light can still get in.»
EXPOSITION
Kim Hak et Jamis Maxtone-Graham
Du 9 avril au 19 mai 2015
Le Magasin de jouets
19 rue jouvène
13200 Arles
France
http://www.lemagasindejouets.fr
