Galerie Obsession, the new space of Pierre Passebon and Florent Barbarossa dedicated to the male nude, presents the exhibition “Tomber des nu(e)s” by Marc Martin and Mathis Chevalier. An eponymous book by Marc Martin is being released by Editions Agua.
It is the story of a meeting between two men separated by a quarter of a century. On one side, the photographer – attached to the body – who questions male posture through his young model. On the other, this model – athlete and former MMA champion – who takes him elsewhere, straight ahead. Together, Marc Martin and Mathis Chevalier lead the viewer’s eye off-camera, far from the framework of the norm. Their favorite terrain? The challenge to ambient prudishness.
Full of references, Tomber des nu(e)s raises the question of our relationship to heritage. From classics to downgraded images, drawn from the repertoire of famous or unknown artists, the winks combine irreverence and transmission. The nudity of Mathis Chevalier appears as the standard of an art of living that goes against the grain of our time.
The young man who today apes the posture of the Faune Barberini, the most obscene sculpture in the History of Art, performs an athletic pirouette. When photographer Marc Martin shows the body of a man who knows how to fight in the lascivious pose of Vélázquez’s Vénus au Miroir, he continues his reflection on gender stereotypes. When Mathis Chevalier returns to Grigny – the suburb where he acquired his boxing championship titles – in high heels mimicking Madonna hitchhiking naked in the streets of Miami, he sends toxic virility flying. Through the lens, the young actor embodies both the figure of Achilles and the queer heroes of Fassbinder, he playfully dons a sailor’s outfit and undresses to launch a rant against the war in a metaphor of Rimbaud’s Dormeur du Val. He displays his passion for women in the arms of Maïa Mazaurette and Zoé Bernardi and accepts himself as an object of desire in a line with Genet’s homoerotic film Un chant d’amour with Pierre Emö.
Marc Martin et Mathis Chevalier : Tomber des nu(e)s
from April 24 to June 8, 2024
Galerie Obsession
5, passage Charles Dallery
75011 Paris
https://www.galerie-obsession.com/expositions/marc-martin-mathis-chevalier-tomber-des-nues/
Marc Martin : www.marcmartin.paris
