The Rencontres 9PH festival opened last Friday at the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon. Michel Poivert was hosting a roundtable discussion with some of the photographers on display in the event’s fifteen exhibition spaces. These interviews allow us to compare the visions of historians and photographers and, depending on the works and personalities, to approach the personal and the conceptual. That intimacy was particularly apparent for Aram Dervent and Taysir Batniji, who opened their exhibitions a few hours later at the Fondation Bullukian and BF15, respectively. This year Gilles Verneret has added a number of events to the reliably high-quality program. A projection was held last Saturday on the Bleu du Ciel esplanade, following several openings on the Rue Burdeau. Overflowing with visitors, it presented around twenty works in the form of an compilation of photographs to create a mythological, cultural and poetic portrait of the cradle of civilization. Next Friday and Saturday will see other openings at the municipal library, including those of Ahmed Bouyerdene and Alain Leloup.
Laurence Cornet
