The Esther Woerdehoff Gallery inaugurated Tuesday its first exhibition of the year with the still-life poet, Spanish photographer Chema Madoz. While Actes Sud editions have just published “the rules of the game“, fruit of his recent achievements (see our October 20th article), the parisian gallery today exposes a selection of his recent works. In 2005, the Esther Woerdehoff Gallery exhibited for the first time the works of Chema Madoz, then very little known in France.
In the influence of Surrealism, the photographer becomes a sculptor, on a line stretched between the real and the imaginary. By transforming objects, often utilitarian, playing with collage, juxtaposition, reflections, he then brings chaos in everyday life and seems to allow silent things to express their innermost desires. The views from his studio, photographed by Pablo Zamora for El Pais, show us a cabinet of curiosities both orderly and fanciful. We can spot some of the subjects of his photographs: a terrestrial globe -disco ball, a tie made out of rococo frames or a shoe with The Eiffel Tower as a heel.
Some objects regularly return: scales, watches, musical notes, mirror or chess are also symbols of the human condition.
The choice of black and white separates even more theses objects from the real world, the monochromy makes them timeless and allows us to focus on their shape, texture, and tones, like coming back to the origins of photography, when the long exposure of the daguerreotype forced the photographer to choose immobile subjects. Far from being a tribute to materialism or to consumer society, theses portraits of objects by Chema Madoz are a call to reconsider their use and their beauty. Magician of the silver printing, Chema Madoz prints his pictures in warm tones, playing with the small and large, with a format and careful editing for each of the subject. .
Florence Pillet, November 2015
EXHIBITION
Chema Madoz, Oeuvres récentes
From January 26th to March 12th, 2016
Galerie Esther Woerdehoff
36 rue Falguière
75015 Paris
France
Tel : +33 09 51 51 24 50
Tuesday to Saturday 2pm – 6pm
[email protected]
http://www.ewgalerie.com
