Lin Zhipeng, better known by his pseudonym No. 223, has chosen an enigmatic and powerful title. Silence is never neutral: so many things can be conveyed by it. Restraint, confusion, resistance, intimacy… And that’s fitting, because it’s precisely the theme of this year’s Planches Contact Festival in Deauville.
In Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love, desire is woven into the silence between the characters—a charged silence, more sensual than any explicit scene. In Lin’s work, intimacy is never stated directly, and that is precisely what makes it so powerful. Yes, he photographs naked bodies, but they are not reduced to themselves: behind them looms a generation in search of emancipation, love, and freedom.
Born in 1979 in Guangdong, Lin Zhipeng is one of the leading figures in contemporary Chinese photography. Self-taught, since the early 2000s he has forged a free, vibrant body of work that resolutely goes against the social and moral norms of his country.
Through a spontaneous practice, he photographs his friends: their bodies in motion, their fleeting glances, moments of desire, playfulness, complicity, or abandonment. The result is sensitive, sometimes provocative, often funny scenes.
He never leaves home without his camera and has a simple mantra: “Have fun.” And that’s exactly how we feel when we look at his images, with a smile on our lips.
In Deauville: intimacy in the open air
Invited to take up residence at Planches Contact, Lin Zhipeng continued his exploration of the naked body in public spaces in Deauville. On the beach and in the woods, seven of his friends and acquaintances took part in the project: inhabiting and experiencing the Normandy landscape. The result is a magnificent series in which nudity becomes a poetic and liberating gesture.
This edition also marks Lin Zhipeng’s twenty-year career. Alongside the photographs taken during his residency and exhibited at Les Franciscaines, a retrospective is dedicated to him at Le Point de Vue, featuring a selection of his iconic series, some of which were photographed in China and are being presented for the very first time in France.
These two exhibitions provide an insight into the world and scope of this artist’s work. An artist who, even if he says little (it is worth noting that his pseudonym is composed of numbers), says a lot through his images and, in doing so, provokes a thousand thoughts in the viewer.
Silences that, decidedly, speak volumes.
Planches Contact Festival 2025
October 18, 2025 to January 4, 2026
planchescontact.fr
