From October 22, 2022 to January 1, 2023, Deauville will host the thirteenth edition of Planches Contact, the photography festival directed by Laura Serani in its Franciscan building.
“Do you remember this photo by Cartier-Bresson taken in May 1968? It shows a middle-aged man, elegant, dark suit, hat screwed on his head, observing a graffiti of the student revolt: “Enjoy without hindrance”. This could be the motto of Planches Contact. This photo, which confronts two opposing universes, which challenges, which is anchored in the city, echoes the spirit of the festival and the privileged and rather rare conditions of production and presentation, permitted by the unfailing support of the City of Deauville. These conditions are even more important for the artists in the current context where, against all odds, the Deauville Festival remains a sort of protected island where one can look around and produce in complete freedom.
The preparation of Planches Contact is a long “untouched river”, a bubbling, an uninterrupted loop from one edition to the next, between the elaboration of the program, the succession of residencies, the “live” production with the artists, the conception of the scenography and the construction of the installations, up to the sharing with the public. As every year, an important criterion for selection is the variety of views and the multiplicity of photographic languages and subjects treated.
Documentary approaches, imaginary or poetic stories, still or moving images, offbeat approaches, all have their place. The artists have only to take advantage of the territory and of this help to creation, that is to say to take the time to explore it by following their centers of interest; then to let their creativity express itself freely by developing their project according to their own codes, without limits.
Breaking free of barriers also means breaking boundaries. Breaking the borders between cultures with an international program ranging from the Italian Stefano de Luigi to the Senegalese Omar Victor Diop and the Franco-Moroccan Carolle Benitah. Breaking the boundaries between generations with major figures such as Bettina Rheims or Raymond Depardon, and emerging photographers selected as part of the Young Talent Springboard.
Breaking the boundaries between disciplines. Alongside photography, video, but also architecture, drawing, music and publishing have their place at the festival. The presence of actress Jessica Lange, guest of honor, also creates a bridge with American cinema, which is dear to Deauville’s heart.
To finally break the boundaries between the visible and the invisible. Since its invention, photography has made it possible to show everything – distant countries, unknown lands, the most remote tribes. So why not try to show the invisible or to change the point of view as Francesco Jodice does with his film 44 things seen by an alien anthropologist in Normandy or to disrupt the relationship to space by creating optical illusions as Georges Rousse does?
Breaking also the codes with unexpected images of Depardon of the French coastline in color, a guest of honor better known as an actress than as a photographer, amateur photos from the collection The Anonymous Project and with innovative scenographies designed with Jean-Charles Remicourt-Marie. At the beach, on the glass roof of the Olympic swimming pool, throughout the city, at the Franciscaines or at the Point de Vue, this exhortation to unfettered enjoyment is also addressed to visitors. In a world bombarded by images, take the time to really see by abandoning your prejudices and habits. To remain open to all surprises and to the emergence of the unusual. To look at reality differently, with and thanks to the artists. Commit to them with the photo4food foundation for a concrete social impact.
To be caught up in photographs and films that tell stories, in which Normandy is the protagonist or the setting, that overturn a “formatted vision”, that open a window on other waves and propose a pause for reflection on our societies.”
Laura Serani
Exhibitions
Jessica Lange, a first in France
The coastline in color by Raymond Depardon
The Chapel by Bettina Rheims with the collaboration of Marie-Noëlle Perriau
George Rousse. Peregrinations
The Anonymous Project. Outside-In
Residencies
- Jean-Christian Bourcart. Blow up Normandy – Fragments of a chronology of chance
- Stefano De Luigi. Zero
- Omar Victor Diop. Odysseia
- Carolle Benitah. The curve of happiness
- Francesco Jodice. 44 things seen by an alien anthropologist in Normandy
- Jean-Christophe Béchet. A fiction of reality
- Stanislas Augris. La Morsure (in partnership with Photo4food)
- Anne-Charlotte Moulard. Léon a rasé César à Noël (in partnership with Photo4food)
- Diana Lui. The swords of Jeanne. Cartographies of Joan of Arc’s contemporaries (in partnership with Photo4food)
- Anne-Laure Maison and Michel Cam. Human Soul in Deauville (in partnership with Photo4food)
The residence Tremplins young talents
- Ciro Battiloro. Le Petit Souffle
- Dana Cojbuc. Open the shore
- Emile Garçon and Lise Guillon. Of love and Deauville
- Henri Kisielewski. Non-fiction
- Bruno Labarbère. Calva-Perché
Agendas
Opening of the exhibitions on Saturday October 22, 10:30 am
Guided tour of the exhibitions by Laura Serani on Saturday, October 22, 6:30 pm
Information
Planches Contact - Photography festival of Deauville
Deauville, France
October 22, 2022 to January 01, 2023
