Photography ArtFair Jean-Marc Besacier at macparis spring 2019

From June 11 to 16, 2019, macparis returns for a new edition at the Bastille Design Center where the work of Jean-Marc Besacier will be presented.

Jean-Marc Besacier

“Jean-Marc Besacier is an architect. From this initial vocation, he has kept an analytical and structuring look at the places, landscapes, objects and people he photographs. His images are reasoned reconstructions of reality, with sharp lines and planes, as if cut with a scalpel. He likes subjects with geometric shapes, orthogonal constructions, cavalier perspectives and solidly architectured spaces, especially industrial sites and design products. He does not disdain, however, landscapes and portraits that he tackles with the same constructive rigor.

In some works, especially in his portraits, he is limited to black and white. Elsewhere, when color intervenes, it essentially plays the role of structuring element, far from any temptation of any pictorial realism.

Starting from real, easily identifiable subjects, Jean-Marc Besacier engages in a work of deconstruction and reconstruction in an approach in all respects similar to that of painters – and especially historical cubists – in front of their subject. “- Louis Doucet

macparis spring 2019

In Le Fou d’Elsa, 1963, Louis Aragon wrote: “The future of man is woman. “We do not know if this is totally accurate, but what is, given the records we have received, is that” the future of the artist is the visual artist. The programming committee – two women and two men – selected, for this spring 2019 session of macparis, twenty-three plastic artists … including sixteen visual artists … At no point in the process was there a question of positive discrimination. If women are more than twice as numerous as men, it is simply because their proposals were objectively better than the others. What we also notice – and this is a very positive sign for the future – is that feminization goes hand in hand with the rejuvenation of selection: five exhibitors are under thirty and nine under forty, of whom one man …

This result is not the result of chance but the direct consequence of an evolution in progress for more than a decade: the massive accession of young women to the fine arts schools where they are, today, very much in the majority among the students. This wave of new plastic artists will spread and rebalance an artistic scene that was, for far too long, largely monopolized by men. We can only rejoice. The fact remains, however, that, according to artists of all ages that we come across every day, there is a glass ceiling that would restrict their access to the art market, museums, galleries and institutions.

Thanks to the unfailing support of the General Directorate of Artistic Creation of the Ministry of Culture, macparis has been working for more than three decades to give visibility to creators – women and men – to give them access to collectors, but also to galleries, arts centers and institutions … And if we rely on the feedback of the exhibitors from our last sessions, it works pretty well … So we are part of an effort to break this ceiling of glass…

In this spring of 2019, the twenty-three artists exhibited were selected from more than 1,500 entries. This selection is a cross section, the widest possible, of what is best in studio. We give selected visual artists the opportunity to show a significant set of their recent creations and to meet directly with the public – individuals and professionals – for a whole week. We chose them because we are convinced that their creations rise to the height of our world’s stakes and that, in conditions which are often difficult, they persevere in a direction devalued by our society.

It is this resilience to fashionable currents, this rebellion against the shackles of all kinds that stifle personal expression, that we appreciate at the highest level. Our dearest wish is that you will also be sensitive to that.

Herve Bourdin, Mathilde Frotiee, Annick & Louis Doucet
Commissioners of the event