The exhibition Une borne à l’infini (An Infinite Terminal) is showing twenty-one photographs from the series Solo (2011-2015) and Le ciel commence ici (2013-2017).
Both of these two successive series are staged in exterior spaces in different ways. In Solo, the action happens in abandoned salt marshes, a sort of gazebo, or an airport runway. The horizontality of the spaces refers to the stage of a theater.
The series Le ciel commence ici (The sky begins here) is spread out over roofs, at the very tops of different extraordinary architecture, like the Deauville pool, the Château de Chambord and the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and the Paris Observatory. This time, to stretch the theatrical metaphor about which I care so much, the scene does not only happen outdoors, but in settings loaded with history and artistic weight.
In the two series, we find the very somber skies already present in the enlarged photographs of the Polaroid SX70 series Paysages (1992), and the actors as well as the thrown objects from Une fois et pas plus (Once and no more) 2002 and from Longue distance 2007.
In these cosmically alluring spaces, the characters, often immersed in thought, are confronted with objects that play a central role both during the shoot and in the final image. Whether they are in the air or rolling on the ground, they relate to the body, the set, the light, the time. The photograph that I conceive must be capable, in one moment, of capturing existential preoccupations and dreams about our place in time and space. Since the program is endless, I restart again and again…
Corinne Mercadier
Corinne Mercadier, Une borne à l’infini
From March 11 through April 2, 2017
Festival Les Photographiques
Le Mans
France
