Le Centre d’Art GwinZegal presents its annual exhibition “Champs/Contre-champs”, on view from March 12th to May 7th. It aims at confronting a set of mutations common to society as a whole through the eyes of photographers. For this new edition, literature is emphasized, with “Le Cycle du Pays Natal” by Armand Robin and a set of photographs and texts of Swiss poet Gustave Roud, evoking the daily life of Vaud farmers. Two other exhibitions are also presented: “Deposit” by Yann Mingard and a portrait of Hubert Forget by Isabelle Vaillant, “Curé de Campagne”.
Gustave Roud (1897-1976) was the son and grandson of farmers. He pursued his studies in humanities at the university of Lausanne but never left the family farm in Carrouge, in the pre-Alpine region of Jorat in Switzerland’s Vaud township. Like Armand Robin, his career as a translator held an important place in his life and work. In particular, he translated German Romantic texts, which considerably influenced his poetic approach. In addition to this, from the age of sixteen just until the end of his life, he maintained a diligent photography practice. His preferred subjects were nature and the countryside, rhythms of the seasons and the work of the village farmers (whose gestures he froze with passion and precision). Solitary, he was an atypical village figure. Dressed in a tie and jacket and always with his camera in hand, he took long, meditative walks in the fields. A careful observer of the mechanics of agricultural techniques, he seemed to scrutinize a secular world in danger of extinction.
Never exposed during his lifetime, his photographs nevertheless made him one of the principal European writer-photographers of the interwar and immediate postwar era. His photographs were the subject of posthumous exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou (Paris) and the Musée de l’Élysée (Lausanne) in 1990. In 2015, the Vaud state council officially decreed 2015 “Gustave-Roud year”. He was honored in Switzerland with several exhibitions and events.
EXHIBITION
Champs/Contre-champs 2016
Gustave Roud
From March 12th to May 7th, 2016
Centre d’Art Gwinzegal
Médiathèque de Guingamp
3 rue Auguste Pavie
22200 Guingamp
France
02 96 44 27 78
Tuesday 12pm – 6pm – Wednesday to Saturday 10am – 12pm and 2pm – 6pm and Friday le vendredi de 10am – 12pm and 3pm – 7pm.
[email protected]
http://gwinzegal.com
