The photographer Jean-Léonard Polo is showing Corps pour Elles at the Espace Carpeaux in Courbevoie. The project, carried out last year around the theme of bodyscape, uses a part of the nude (exclusively female) body as a point of departure in order to tell stories and stage scenes by arranging tiny figurines and accessories on the surface of the flesh. Like a trompe-l’oeil, the resulting composition seems at first glance to represent an authentic landscape. However, upon a closer look, one discovers that this “natural” décor is deceptive. Invariably, the naked body serves as the setting that is populated by artificial elements. These are 1:87 scale model figures (humans, animals, and other components, sometimes with the addition of sand or smoke) which come alive in their attributed décor: there is a desert for camels, a swamp or the bush for crocodiles and leopards, a construction site for builders, a garden where someone mows the lawn, an oasis where pink flamingoes come to find water, a soldier making his rounds… Jean-Léonard Polo’s tiny imaginary world seems to awaken in his hands and live a purposeful life in the curves of the model’s body. The erotic dimension is neither foregrounded nor sought after; rather, Jean-Léonard Polo wishes to create an aesthetic and oneiric universe that will encourage the viewer to dream and weave stories.
Jean-Léonard Polo, Corps pour Elles
November 7 to December 21, 2017
Espace Carpeaux
15 Boulevard Aristide Briand
92400 Courbevoie
France
http://www.ville-courbevoie.fr/culture-loisirs/equipements/espace-carpeaux.htm
