The exhibition Guillaume Herbaut, on view at the Pavillon Carré de Baudouin in Paris, brings together three series: 7/7 (2002-2008), la Zone (2009-2011), and les portes de Pripiat (2011).
• 7/7 (2002-2008)
For seven years, Guillaume Herbaut worked on a project outside of his career as a photojournalist. 7/7 shows the consequences of traumatic events on men and their environment, evoking a more or less recent painful past that cannot be erased.
• La Zone (2009-2011)
This journey through time and space takes us to post-nuclear Ukraine. Herbaut depicts life in the restricted zone of Chernobyl, twenty years later, and the personal relationship the artist has with this contaminated area. The art historian Michel Poivert describes the work of Herbaut as “a study of traumatic events and their after effects,” through the environment, objects and portraits, which all “remember” what had happened.
• Les Portes de Pripiat (2010)
Pripiat was a city of 30,000 residents located just three kilometers away from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Evacuated the day after the catastrophe, the region’s radioactivity levels remained high. Since then, nature has overtaken this ghost town. Herbaut took these photographs during his final trips to the forbidden zone, during which he realized that the only remaining traces of its inhabitants are the doorways of their former apartments. Herbaut then systematically photographed every doorway in this building. He considers them the final family portraits of Pripyat.
Guillaume Herbaut (b. 1970) was a founding member of l’Oeil Public. Prize-winner of the Fondation de France in 1999, his work focuses on historical places filled with symbols and memory. He was awarded the Kodak Critics Prize in 2001, the Fuji Book Prize the following year, and the Lucien Hervé Prize in 2004. Herbaut has received grants from the French Ministry of Culture and 3P. Herbaut’s work has been exhibited in solo or part of group shows at the Jeu de Paume Museum in Paris, Visa pour l’Image in Perpignan, Foto España and the Silverstein Gallery in New York. Herbaut has produced documentaries for French Radio and taught workshops in Russia, Spain, Switzerland and France. He is represented by INSTITUTE.
Guillaume Herbaut – Photographies
From November 9th 2012 to January 5th, 2013
Le Pavillon de Carré de Baudoin
121, rue de Ménilmontant
75020 Paris
France
T : 01 58 53 55 40
