Emmanuelle Bousquet, whose work is in praise of the female body, continues her research by observing the landscapes around Eygalières in Provence as the emergence of signs that are at once familiar, disturbing and fantastical.
She was born in Nimes in 1979. Started photography at the age of ten. She lives in Paris and has had close ties with Eygalières for twenty years.
The family home, her first source of inspiration, in old Eygalières, is one of the privileged places to create her photos.
In 2004, she met photographer Antoine d’Agata in Arles. The latter encouraged her to explore all facets of the self-portrait. Since then, she has been pursuing research around the expression of femininity, working in series, in a symbolic universe, composing images like paintings, timeless, inhabited by a mystery.
The Three Series exhibited:
“Terre natale” (Homeland) :
Showing Polaroids made during walks in Eygalières near the Alpilles, between sessions of poses devoted to the study of her body, the photographer explores a new facet of the divestment of herself, abandoning her will to the mysterious domain of a nature which she knows well to draw from it this indocile and frank energy which is the motor of her creative acts.
The woman-landscape offering her modesty and her unveiling to the eyes that unfold her is brought closer by this series to the source of all desire, which is the inexhaustible of a territory of childhood approached more as a mental space than as pure transparent exteriority.
There is in what appears in the objective of Emmanuelle Bousquet a mystery of lights and forms, but also a grace beyond the first terror. The threat of a final judgment is replaced by the pleasure of being in the world, as ridiculous as a broken branch, as powerful as a mountain attracting in its crests all that surrounds it.
In these photographs of ruins and unscathed world, where the possibility of blindness hovers, it may well be that the photographer seeks to get closer to the truth of her own dazzle and to the very flesh of reality.
“Muses”:
In this “Muses” series, time seems to have stood still. This unusual place has not been open since the Napoleonic era and these iconic creatures seem to have never been out.
Monastery then brothel, between the virgin and the lady of joy, time stopped …
No reconstruction of scenes, no intrusion of decor, the place is there.
I have introduced into this courtyard young beauties such as one can imagine them at the time, idle, enjoyable, but with bodies of timeless muses.
The present in the past or almost …..
“Statue”:
“The greatness of a profession is perhaps above all, to unite men. It is only one true luxury and it is that of Human Relations. By working for material goods only, we build ourselves our own prison, with our money made of ashes which provides nothing worth living. ” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The modern man lives only on the surface of himself an existence devoid of deep meaning. He is anxious, losing his bearings and his values. He lives in fear, afraid that the other will discover his weaknesses and inadequacies. He erases what society would blame him for: his sensitivity and his emotions. He hardens his shell in contact with others in order, he believes, to appear stronger. His heart slowly fossilizes, then his body dissolves in a stone matrix.
In this “Statue” series, I chose the self-portrait to be as close as possible to my emotions, to describe a lonely being that splits into two parts, one that society has made cold and insensitive, the other who fights and who still resists to keep its humanity, its warmth. A duality, half statue, half human.
Edition of the Book of the Statue series “Under a Loving Stone” by Filigranes.
Represented by the Galleries:
La Galerie Rouge – Paris – France https://lagalerierouge.paris
Art22Gallery – Bruxelles – Belgique http://www.art22.gallery
Wild Project Gallery – Luxembourg http://www.wildprojectgallery.com
Brucie Collections – Kiev – Ukraine http://www.bruciecollections.com
Exhibition:
Emmanuelle Bousquet: Sous une pierre amante
Opening from Wednesday July 1 to Sunday July 19 inclusive
hours: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.
House of Consuls Museum
13810 Eygalières.
