L'invention d'une histoire vraie (2)

Nelly Monnier & Eric Tabuchi

18 Feb — 14 May 2022

The exhibition entitled ‘L’invention d’une histoire vraie (2) (Inventing a true story)’ follows the wanderings of Nelly Monnier (1988, France) and Eric Tabuchi (1959, France) through the French countryside. Following their recent exhibition at the GwinZegal art centre in Guingamp, this pair of artists presents part of their Atlas des Régions Naturelles (ARN) (Atlas of the Natural Regions) and a series of sculptural and pictorial works resulting from it.

It all began with an idea that was both mad and extremely time-consuming: to photograph and document the vernacular architecture in all the natural regions of France – quite a vague notion – from French Flanders to the Outre Forêt area of Alsace, from the Freto region of Corsica to Béarn in the Pyrenees or Léon in Finistère. It was a huge undertaking, halfway between a quest straight out of a heroic fantasy novel and an absurd and comic adventure à la Monty Python. Monnier and Tabuchi bring back very varied photos from their travels, their primary concern being to document the built environment, but by extension to analyse the landscapes and understand the incidence of humans on where they live. The pair photograph astonishing landscapes, strange architecture, bizarre situations, joyful places and places fallen into disuse. It is a multi-faceted portrait of France, sometimes touching, sometimes absurd, never judgmental, which they produce in the course of their expedition. Back in their workshop, they sort their photographs by geographical location or by theme. The approach is reminiscent of that of Bernd and Hilla Becher, a pair of German photographers known for their frontal shots of industrial architecture, and of that of ‘La France’... [lire plus]