Meeting with Meyer of Tendence Floue on the commissioning by the city of Deauville. A native of Nîmes, Meyer has long explored the ‘behind the scenes’ of the arenas and their bullfighting rituals, under the intense southern sun, to then multiply them in surprising and singular photomontages. It is with this look and this new passion for recomposed reality that Meyer will discover and recompose the rituals of the polo Coupe D’Or in Deauville, founded in 1950, in a city where polo is played since 1865.
L’Oeil de la Photographie : We know your work on bullfighting, but did you know polo before coming to Deauville? Do you have a distinctive relationship with horses?
Meyer : No, I had no knowledge of this universe before proposing this project. Discovery is one of the essential mechanisms of the photographic act. It is always with great curiosity that I take knowledge of that or the other form of human activities or fragments of our world, to appreciate the uniqueness, the strangeness. With regards to the horse, it is difficult to resist such charm. It is a majestic being that dominates the imagination intensely, and has since centuries’ naturally imposed itself in the history of art and of performance, just like the bull.
ODLP : Do you discern similarities between bullfighting and polo?
Meyer : They are really different worlds. The dimension of death in the bullfight places it in an exclusive category, polo holds risks, but nothing resembles a bullfight. However, there are correspondences in the way to approach them photographically. The playing field is a theatre. You don’t know what, but something will happen, there, within the strict limits of the space and in the time imparted, and it is thrilling.
FESTIVAL
Planche(s) Contact
Meyer
La Coupe d’Or
From October 17th to November 29th, 2015
Ville de Deauville
France
http://www.deauville-photo.fr
