This is Nice…You recognize the sky and the light, white above the sea, cobalt blue above the hills that surround the city. And also, but almost by accident, in the style of the miniature landscapes that you notice over the shoulder of the subject in Italian renaissance paintings: the Baie des Anges, the Promenade des Anglais, the Palais de la Mediterranée, the Régina or the pink roofs of the Négresco, unique well-known landmarks, a landscape that is bound to be recognised. For the rest, you embark on an adventure, trying, like the solver of a jigsaw puzzle, to decipher the enigma and give a coherence to a place that doesn’t let itself be reconstituted any more.
The city is a lure, you carry inside, like a childhood dream. It doesn’t exist. Or it’s multifaceted, without perspective, broken open by the magnified details that distract the senses from the perceived images. Subject to the play of volumes, lines, colours,any city becomes poignant. Something fatal, imminent, creeps in and overcomes the noise. So you think that take place under the sun, in this harsh light, always very blue or very white, a quiet tragedy…
EXHIBITION
Toujours à propos de Nice
by Jean-Robert Franco
Through October 20th, 2015
Galerie de l’Hôtel Jules & Jim
11, rue des Gravilliers
75003 Paris
Tel + 33 1 44 54 13 13
www.hoteljulesetjim.com
www.facebook.com/hoteljulesetjim
