He is everywhere, throughout France. It is becoming difficult to go to any region of France without finding a Hans Silvester exhibition. His images (from very different collections) are visible from Brittany to the Pays d’Aix, via the Center of the country.
Today, after the essential exhibition installed in the Musée Arlaten in Arles, I am going to try my hand on the installation in the splendid Château de Gordes, in the heart of Provence.
The city of Gordes, chose Hans, to allow him to exhibit a retrospective of his works dedicated to humanity in the entire castle reserved for exhibitions for a full year.
The castle is grandiose, literally and figuratively. The choice of images, from multiple continents, is commensurate with the historical and classified setting. Half a century of human evolution, in all latitudes since 1960, imposes itself on our reflection, our feelings and our contradictions.
All the photographs, in very large formats, dominate exchanges with the public by their quality, we are very far from all these new “emerging” images. Hans’ shots are excellent in their precise sharpness, in their subtle composition, in their delicate luminosity. All the technical mastery of a great photographer, witness to his time and surveyor of others. His images take us into this past universe of reflection and intelligence which seems – today – to regularly fade in favor of organized, predigested and unitary lines of thought.
In this retrospective, there was no catchy miserabilism, no unconscious optimism, it was quite simply the lives of our neighbors which were not necessarily ours. It was a bygone era, when our accepted differences still made up the richness and sharing of our Humanity. These photographs have become heritage, a perfection sought by Hans Silvester, both in substance and in form. They will have to be protected to keep the trace of what was before the general leveling down, the razing of the riches of the spirit by a planetary financial volcanism.
All generations are welcome to remember, to discover, to understand according to their age. How History was with good photographs.
A nice additional nod, Hans’s collection of cats is displayed on the walls of this village considered one of the most beautiful in France.
It’s difficult to remain indifferent to all these masterpieces that await us.
Thierry Maindrault
EXHIBITIONS
Le Baladin du Monde
Château de Gordes
84220 Gordes
from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025
open every day from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
70 large format photographs (1.50 m x 1.00 m)
under the curatorship of Pierre Jaccaud
Cats by Hans Silvester
Murs de la Ville
84220 Gordes
