how I would like myself to ‘be’
curator: marc donnadieu
The exhibition how I would like myself to ‘be’ is inspired by the polysemy of uses and meanings of the word “être” (‘to be’ in French): “to exist,” “to live,” all equally nominatives signifying “individual” or even “identity.” By engaging in a dialogue between works of brut art and contemporary art—especially those by performance artists from the 1960s-1980s—Marc Donnadieu, the curator of the exhibition, sheds light on how the diverse use of the photographic tool allows the world to see multiple, transient, or definitive existences and identities.
The photographs presented intentionally belong to artists consciously or unconsciously questioning their own masculinity and the polyphony of possibilities or impossibilities it encompasses. Consequently, each individual escapes their status as a “person” in order to “live in the image” what they could no longer “be in life,” thereby surpassing any political, social, or familial attempts at subjugation. Therefore, it’s no surprise that most of them blur themselves, gag themselves, suture themselves, mask themselves, cross-dress, transform themselves, duplicate themselves, or project themselves into “other” alterities—paradoxically, these gestures are more revealing of their profound beings. They seem to prefer affirming themselves through the eyes of the addressed gaze rather than the paths of spoken words, as if the silences of the image were more striking than spoken words. The invisibility of these “marginal” identities is countered by photographic projects “wholeheartedly” embodying manifestos of excess and boundarylessness.
An homage will be paid to the guiding figure in this field: Pierre Molinier. Immersing oneself in the works of Marcel Bascoulard, Anna et Bernhard Blume, Jorge Alberto Cadi, Luciano Castelli, José Manuel Egea, Le Fétichiste (anonyme), Michel Journiac, Henry Lewis, Tomasz Machciński, M A R S (Nathan Carter, Dan Estabrook & Mercedes Jelinek), MOHROR, Pierre Molinier, David Newman, Gaston Paris, Luboš Plný, Arnulf Rainer and Decebal Scriba thus involves deciphering life by distancing oneself from the world and expanding beyond oneself, then restoring this life by foregoing the world and (re)discovering oneself.
Moreover, when the artwork itself is a photographic self-portrait—or a “delegated portrait”—the situation becomes even more moving. On one hand, through the distanced or skewed mirror effect of one’s own reality inherent in any self-portrait; on the other hand, through the proof of this new identity that photography captures, develops, unveils, and sanctifies for eternity. To the extent that these “photographic beings” become more truthful—or more veracious—than life itself: the “self-being” in the image thus confronts the “non-being” of the real; the “word-being” to the “word-spoken”—or “cursed”—of existence.
catalog published on the occasion of the exhibition
how I would like myself to “be” curator: marc donnadieu
from february 8th to april 6th, 2024
preface by marc donnadieu
