La Galerie Rouge presents Sur-Nature, a personal exhibition of photographer Benjamin Deroche. Accompanied by the publication of the homonymous book published by Filigranes, this exhibition sheds light on the sensitive, contemplative and metaphysical relationship that the photographer has maintained with the natural world for ten years.
From the Monts d’Arrée in Brittany to the islands of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Benjamin Deroche is in search of infinite territories, often isolated and devoid of human beings, which allow him to engage in a real dialogue with the natural world. His work is carried out in three stages: the discovery of the place, the creation of an installation and the shooting. Before intervening in the environment, Benjamin Deroche soaks up its energy, observes its functioning, its ability to play with light, and the fauna and flora that inhabit it. Very attentive to the spiritual character of these spaces, Benjamin Deroche evokes an invisible material with which he engages in dialogue. By introducing certain devices such as paper sculptures, spheres or natural elements, he thus makes the forces and energies of nature visible and reveals its striking beauty. These installations can be perceived as responses to places that touch him or as meditative devices that create bridges between the visible and invisible world. Benjamin Deroche thus reveals the spirit of places through plastic art additions, working on their relationship to shapes, volumes, textures and colors.
However, the alluring appearance of its flamboyantly chromatic images should not be completely trusted. The discrepancy between artifice and nature creates a persistent impression of wonder, of strange enchantment that invites us to question our own relationship to nature and its representation. Because by “derealizing reality while keeping it before our eyes”, Benjamin Deroche “allows us to see it differently”. Sur-Nature thus evokes as much the idea of the supernatural as the fear of the alteration of nature by human intervention. Like a quiet force, Benjamin Deroche also tells us that we cannot separate man from his environment and that they are both inseparable. The photographer’s gaze highlights this link.
Born in 1981, Benjamin Deroche is a fine art photographer whose work is mainly oriented around landscape themes and island territories in France and abroad. Walking and traveling a lot, his practice is based on a sensitive relationship with nature, often close to contemplative and metaphysical research. By introducing certain devices and elements such as papers or spheres to the environments he passes through, he makes the forces and energies of nature visible and reveals its striking beauty.
The artist collaborates with different museums and university laboratories through his research projects around the sea and the landscape: the Landévennec Abbey Museum, the Ecomuseum of the Monts d’Arrée, the Natural History Museum, the Museum of L’Arche-St Pierre and Miquelon, among others. His work is regularly exhibited at photographic festivals (Les Rencontres d’Arles, La Gacilly, Vendôme), exhibitions (Centre Atlantique de la photographie, oceanic film festival) and Art Fairs (Paris Photo, La Fiac, Art Paris).
Holder of a doctorate in semiology, he is very marked by the figure of Marguerite Duras to whom he devotes a first series: The places of Marguerite Duras. Taken at the Hotel des Roches Noires, in Trouville-sur-Mer where Marguerite Duras lived for a long time, his photographs were exhibited at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2016 as well as at the Prix Marguerite Duras in 2018 in Trouville.
Benjamin Deroche : Sur-Nature
from April 6 to June 3, 2023
La Galerie Rouge
3 rue du Pont Louis-Philippe
75004 Paris
www.lagalerierouge.paris
