From September 10 to October 31, 2019, Galerie XII presents Un Orient alors en paix (A then peaceful East), a double exhibition of artists Dolores Marat and Patrizia Mussa, as part of the third biennial of the photographers of the contemporary Arab world.
Syria, Yemen, Egypt, Jordan: these countries offered the western traveler initiatory wanderings, immersion in places steeped in ancient civilisations . They inspired a considerable iconography, since the drawings of the Commission of Egypt, watercolors by David Roberts in Jordan, photographs by Félix Bonfils and many others.
For the last twenty years, these lands are the scene of fights documented by war photographers. Over the centuries, these places have endured countless invasions and recovered from so many destructions. They are timeless.
The exhibition brings together the works of two photographers who have captured the essence of the orient that fascinates us. Taken in the years 1980-2000, these images are nostalgic, they bring us back to a past that is not so far away and make us glimpse to the future, that of peaceful land.
The East of Dolores Marat
The photography of Dolores Marat tells the of the night in what is very mysterious. Although most of the photographs selected for this exhibition were taken in daylight, the dark skies, the velvety images and the tone, all evokes those uncertain hours when the night wrestles with the day and reality fades away. It’s a photography of meetings, magical moments, moments stopped by time. She never reframes or retouches. For her prints, she worked for a long time with the Fresson workshop whose particular technique admirably harmonises with her colors. The prints of the exhibition were made on a Japan paper that Dolores Marat discovered recently and whose grain quality combines with the image.
The East of Patrizia Mussa
Patrizia Mussa also traveled to Yemen, Syria and Jordan as long as this was possible. The photographs presented in the exhibition were taken in Yemen, where she stopped to capture the magical architectures of Sanaa, as well as the arid deserts of the country. Her images, carefully preserved for many years and today grouped under the name Warless Theaters, are enriched by years experience and work that allows her to “see” them with a contemporary look, to look at them in new sequences, new colours. She reinterprets them as desaturated images that allow her to time travel. The photographs presented in this exhibition are printed for the first time on watercolor paper and then colorized by hand.
Dolorès Marat et Patrizia Mussa : Un Orient alors en paix
From September 10 to October 31, 2019
GALERIE XII
14, rue des Jardins Saint-Paul, 75004 Paris
www.biennalephotomondearabe.com
