It’s one of the most attractive exhibits going on, but no one has talked about it!
It’s called Lunch Break.
Its curator is Pascale Giffard.
She presents it as follows:
With his Déjeuner sur l’Herbe (1863), Édouard Manet introduced painting, not without provocation, into a new era: his way of painting customary life broke with classical codes. Pictorial modernism is closely followed by the rapid development of photography, which is upset by the arrival of the small, light and space-saving camera made by Leica in the 1930s. Chewing everyday life becomes easy, so much so that some, letting themselves be guided by their curiosity and their creativity, will make it their main activity and become the famous photographers that we know today: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Marc Riboud and more recently Martin Parr.
Even not used to it, we want the icing on the cake as an appetizer. We are invited to come to the table of celebrities who, like Marilyn Monroe or Alfred Hitchcock, offer the midday meal its letters of nobility, passing in front of our eyes from an ordinary break to a time of exception.
Like the photographers themselves, we then go on a trip around the world, to meet workers, employees, having lunch at their workplace or in company canteens. We dive into the frenzy of the cities or the tranquility of the villages and surprise people at the table or, on the contrary, snacking on the go with a hurried step, thus exposing themselves to the eyes of all. Finally, we return to family and friendly intimacy, in a house or at a picnic, our eyes moving with modesty and curiosity from one scene of life to another.
Since the 1980s, with the advent of junkfood, new eating habits have given rise to a new photograph, an unflattering mirror of our consumerist societies. Martin Parr and Marcos López, although very different in their photographic writing, have no equal in giving us their scathing visions but nevertheless full of humor of popular lifestyles, through an ultra colorful aesthetic.
The exhibition presents a selection of photographs from multiple funds, bringing together the images of renowned photographers, those of regional photographers, also the work of anonymous whose pictures are preciously kept in the Bouches-du- Rhône and Marseille Municipal Archives.
In a daily life flooded with images, bulimic abyss of our own daily life, this exhibition brings you enough to satisfy your appetite for slowness and your appetite for photography.
Pascale Giffard – Exhibition curator
Lenders and sources:
Magnum Photos
Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson
Association Les Amis de Marc Riboud
Donation Jacques Henri Lartigue
Agence Rapho-Gamma-Keystone
Marcos López Studio
Archives départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône
Archives municipales de Marseille
Collection du Centre Pompidou / Réunion des Monuments nationaux
Bibliothèque nationale de France
Pause Déjeuner
Until March 14, 2020
Archives et Bibliothèque départementales
18-20 rue Mirès, 13003 Marseille
https://www.departement13.fr/actualites/detail/article/exposition-pause-dejeuner/
