The exhibition Œil pour œil to mark the fifth anniversary of Signatures, Maison de Photographes. Every week we’ll be presenting you with a series on display at the Hôtel de Sauroy through June 14th, which places the work of 8 different artists into dialogue. Following last Wednesday’s publication of the first face-to-face with Tina Merandon and Bruno Amsellem, here is the second installment, a comparison between two photo series by Johann Rousselot and Michel Nguie.
COLERES, Johann Rousselot
I see the explosion of insurrection and civil disobedience movements across the world as a reckoning that our world has been overtaken by the cynical and brutal spirit of capitalism. You can see it in autocrats, the all-powerful market and compromised political regimes. Civil societies are raising their voices in anger at the powers that run this world.
More than the success or failure of these movements, what interests me above all is the tremendous energy deployed at any given time. This volcanic eruption, this immense optimism and faith in the future has been recovered. It’s a beautiful, rare and moving thing to see. I think a moment is upon us where the people in the street will be the ones in control. It may be a brief time, but it is a decisive one.
I left for Tunisia in January 2011 during the Jasmine Revolution. I was looking for a special way to approach this event. First I took portraits of members of the uprising and proceeded to create a “digital collage” using symbolic elements found in the field or on the web. It was a way to create militant icons through a new documentary style, a graphic and conceptual response which I adapt to each struggle.
BORDERLINE, Michel Nguie
Today, with the reflection that follows the action (in photography, I often act and things take shape over time), I think that I can divide my work into three parts: what is (what I perceive, reality?), what should be (peace, joy), what I believe, and what should not be (something’s wrong?). Things do not remain fixed. They mingle and become confused. What is can be confused with what should or should not be. I take pictures as I go along, often guided by the senses. It is an operation of the mind where conviction creates proof. I write the way we direct ourselves with the head and the body, with the goal, I believe, of making poetry for (or out of) light.
EXHIBITION
Œil pour œil
Regards croisés, cinq ans de Signatures
May 17 – June 14, 2014
Opening on May 20th from 6pm to 9.30pm
Hôtel de Sauroy
58, rue Charlot
75003 Paris
France
Photographers on view : Bernard Plossu (Intime), Bruno Amsellem (Etranger), Xavier Lambours (Sexe), Raphaël Helle (Dérèglement climatique), Johann Rousselot (Colères), Tina Merandon (Peurs), Eric Dexheimer (Mort) and Michel Nguie (Borderline)
