With
Portrait(s), the city of Vichy steps into the world of photography for the
third consecutive year. Portrait(s), which will run from 12 June until 6
September, is the only exhibition in France to focus exclusively on the art of
the portrait. Presenting an entire spectrum of different ways of seeing, it
celebrates the portrait in its every form, from the most classical to the most
startling, building on both the tradition of documentary photography and more
conceptual or fictional schemes, and thus offering a splendid group of
exhibitions that are both demanding and mainstream.
An
international exhibition and photographic rendezvous, Portrait(s) is being held
in the galleries of the Centre Culturel Valery-Larbaud in the city centre, in
front of the Church of Saint-Blaise and on the Esplanade de l’Allier, in the
open air. Bringing to light new discoveries and rediscoveries, the work of both
renowned photographers and younger artists, the city offers its visitors to the
festival a genuine photographic saunter. Beneath the summer sun, walkers are
invited to take part in a stroll punctuated by images in which they will
recognize the features of faces of celebrities and nameless people who could be
our neighbours.
Vichy
Portrait(s) reconfirms the commitment it made to contemporary photography in
2014, offering a photographer a period as artist in residence. This year it was
Turkish photographer Yusuf Sevinçli who wandered around the city for a month,
sett- ling his thoroughly humanitarian gaze on its people.
Portrait(s)
brings together eleven artists in this year’s exhibitions. The galleries of the
Centre Culturel Valery-Larbaud, which was built at the beginning of the last
century, will show work by Martin Schoeller, Bruce Wrighton, Alejandro
Cartagena, Richard Pak, Kourtney Roy, Mat Jacob and L’Une et l’Autre.
German
photographer Martin Schoeller puts together close-up portraits of twins and
uses these mirror images, which contain astonishing resemblances, to ask a
profound question : what it is that forms the individual and his or her
identity ? American Bruce Wrighton
reinvented street photography in the 1980s. Using an 8x10 camera, he shot
portraits of ordinary citizens of Binghamton, NY, the small city where he lived
until he died prematurely in 1988, at the age of 38. French photographer Richard Pak went to seek
out emotions in the crowds at rock concerts, watching the faces of the fans for
signs of the fervour, fever or stupor that border on trances or ecstasy, and
capturing these moments at the closest range. Alejandro Cartagena, from the
Dominican Republic, presents us with a portrait of Mexico City in both social
and urban terms through a stunning series of photographs of local workers on
their way to their jobs, day by day, bundled together invisibly like farm
animals in the back of pick-ups, all in bright colours. Kourtney Roy, a young
Canadian now working in Paris, has for some years imposed her tall silhouette
in self-portraits that manipulate both glamour and self-mockery. Mat Jacob, who
also comes from France has wandered around China, Mexico, Russia, Myanmar, West
Bank and elsewhere, putting together a discreet, sensitive atlas of the world
and its people. The exhibition L'Une et l'Autre presents an extract from the
“Carnets de route” collection, series of photographic tales that were developed
in the 100 Voix! workshops and open to victims of exclusion and female
residents of Aurore Association shelters.
On the
Esplanade de l’Allier, passers-by can admire some sixty tender and roguish
portraits made between the 40’s up to now by American photographer Elliott
Erwitt, a legendary member of the Magnum Agency.
The
photographs on exhibition on the Place Saint-Louis are portraits of citizens of
Vichy commissioned from Yusuf Sevinçli. A regular frequenter of urban spaces,
Sevinçli got to meet a lot of people during his stay in the city in March and
took the time to talk to them, thus creating the ties that give each portrait a
dimension both intimate and universal.
PROGRAMME
SELECTION BY :
FANY DUPÉCHEZ,
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR KARIM BOULHAYA, DIRECTOR CENTRE CULTUREL VALERY-LARBAUD &
CO-CURATOR
CHARLOTTE
BENOIT, ASSISTANT TO THE MAYOR, CULTURAL AFFAIRS OFFICER
THE TEAM
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
FANY DUPECHEZ fdupechez@wanadoo.fr
DIRECTOR OF CENTRE CULTUREL VALERY-LARBAUD &
CO-CURATOR
KARIM BOULHAYA
boulhaya@yahoo.fr
PROJECT MANAGER
PASCAL MICHAUT
fdpmprod@orange.fr
MEDIA RELATIONS
NATHALIE DRAN
COMMUNICATION nathalie.dran@wanadoo.fr / 00 33 6 99 41 52 49 / 00 33 9 61
30 19 46
GRAPHIC CONCEPT
ELEMENT-S /
JÉRÔME WITZ witz@free.fr
TECHNICAL DIRECTION
JEAN-MICHEL
FIORI & JERO ME SCHIRTZINGER fiori@scenographe.eu service-expositions@ville-vichy.fr
/ 00 33 4 70 30 55 73