Art is divine
Transcended Reality
by Alessandra Cenna
EUROPEAN HOUSE OF THE PHOTOGRAPHY PARIS
from February 28 to May 26, 2024
EXTERIORS- ANNIE ERNAUX
AND THE PHOTOGRAPHY
Dolorès Marat, La femme aux gants (Woman with gloves), 1987Fresson four-colour pigment print MEP Collection, Paris. Acquired in 2001© Dolorès Marat
Marguerite Bornhauser, Untitled, 2015, from the series ‘Moisson Rouge’.
Cibachrome print MEP Collection, Paris. Gift of the artist in 2019. © Marguerite Bornhauser
Janine Niepce, Restaurant époque 1900. Le garçon de café (Restaurant in the 1900 style. The waiter), 1957 Gelatin silver print MEP Collection, Paris. Acquired in 1983. © Janine Niepce / Roger Viollet
The exhibition «Exteriors - Annie Ernaux and Photography» combines texts by the writer, taken from her book «Journal de Dehors» (1993), with photographs from the MEP Collection. British curator Lou Stoppard explored the work of Annie Ernaux, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature, to choose with her, images from the Museum that blend harmoniously with her ideas and words.
The Journal describes the collective life of a Paris at the end of the century, espe cially in the RER between Cergy Pontoise, where she still lives, and Paris, thanks to the photos of 29 artists from around the world, for more than 150 works, brought together in five rooms themes. Among them: Harry Callahan, Claude Dityvon, Dolorès Marat, Daido Moriyama, Janine Niepce, Issei Suda, Henry Wessel, Bernard Pierre Wolf and Luigi Ghirri.
The images date from the years 1940-2021 and are not limited to a representa tion of life in France, but also in North America, Italy, Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Annie Ernaux has always been interested in photographs and indeed childhood images appear in her work.
Daido Moriyama, Untitled, 1969 Gelatin silver print MEP Collection, Paris. Gift of Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. in 1995. © Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation, courtesy of Akio Nagasawa Gallery.
The MEP pays tribute to her by displaying her writings on the walls, like photographic prints. T he universe dear to Annie Ernaux, such as the streets, trains, stores, banal places, but which help to understand states of mind, is present with its daily rituals of movement and consumption. She is fascinated by supermarkets and in general everything related to food
Ihei Kimura, Yuraku-cho, Tokyo, 1948 Gelatin silver print MEP Collection, Paris. Gift of the Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. in 2003. © Kimura Naoko
Suda Issei, Nabari Mie, 1977, from the series ‘Fushikaden’ (1971-1978), Gelatin silver print MEP Collection, Paris. Gift of the author in 1990. © Issei Suda, works courtesy of Akio Nagasawa Gallery
Hiro, Shinjuku Station, Tokyo, 1962. Gelatin silver prints. MEP Collection, Paris. Gift of the Elsa Peretti Foundation in 2008. © The Estate of Y. Hiro Wakabayashi
Life in big cities is not always simple and feelings of fear and anxiety are felt by its inhabitants. Mohamed Bourouissa’s images representing the Parisian suburbs reflect this threatening atmos phere. T he famous image of broken glass next to the Bataclan after the terrorist attacks of 2015, work by Marguerite Bornhauseur, shows us the difficulty of living in often violent cities.
Henry Wessel suggests that you should always take a photo when you are unable to explain yourself verbally, Annie Ernaux shares this idea and in her Journal she describes reality, without literary turns, even if it is unpleasant.
Her clinical style is displayed in this unusual and fascinating exhibition, a stroll between words and photos…
Bernard Pierre Wolff, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 1981Gelatin silver print MEP Collection, Paris. Bequest from the artist in 1985. © MEP, Paris