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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.

how I would like myself to ‘be’  - © christian berst — art brut
how I would like myself to ‘be’  - © christian berst — art brut
how I would like myself to ‘be’  - © christian berst — art brut
how I would like myself to ‘be’  - © christian berst — art brut
how I would like myself to ‘be’  - © christian berst — art brut
how I would like myself to ‘be’  - © christian berst — art brut
how I would like myself to ‘be’  - © christian berst — art brut
how I would like myself to ‘be’  - © christian berst — art brut
how I would like myself to ‘be’  - © christian berst — art brut
Artists
Luboš Plný - © christian berst — art brut

Luboš Plný

Luboš Plný whose international recognition was confirmed by his selection in the 57th Venice Biennale titled Viva Arte Viva (curated by Christine Macel) in 2017. As the first outsider artist acquired by the MNAM in 2013, he has enjoyed numerous institutional exhibitions in recent years. These include exhibitions at contemporary art museums in Kobe and Hiroshima, Japan, at the Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, at the Kunsthalle in Dresden, and in his hometown of Prague. In 2017, the Dox Art Center dedicated a solo exhibition to him, and in 2022, the Rudolfinum facilitated a dialogue between him and artists such as Louise Bourgeois and William Kentridge. In September 2023, we dedicated a solo show to him in our two spaces, a monography and a performance at the Beaux-Arts de Paris.

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portrait of josé manuel egea - © christian berst — art brut

José Manuel Egea

Convinced of his ability to become a wolf, this young artist from Madrid is fascinated by the Kafkaesque metamorphosis found in the world of comics and mythology. As polymorphic as he is, his work consists of drawings, sculptures and performances, and urges us to accept our own repressed gifts for shape-shifting. Promoted by the gallery since 2016, he had a major show that same year at the Biennale de l’image possible in Liège, Belgium. In 2022, his work was featured in the exhibition Photo | Brut #2 at the Botanique in Brussels. His work is now part of several major European collections of contemporary art such as those of Antoine de Galbert, or Laurent Dumas.

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Jorge Alberto Cadi - © christian berst — art brut

Jorge Alberto Cadi

In the streets of Havana, everyone knows Jorge Alberto Cadi as « El Buzo » - the diver - because he’s constantly searching material for his works in the city’s abandoned objects. Boltanskian by his memorial use of photography, Warholian by his taste for stitching images together, Cadi always seeks to reveal what these photographs are hiding. Exhibited for the very first time in 2019 by the gallery, then in 2022 at Paris Photo, he was presented the same year in the 2nd part of Photo brut which, after the Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles, was hosted at the Centrale and the Botanique, in Brussels. His work is included in the collections of the Musée national d’Art moderne (Pompidou). In 2023, he was exhibited by Sophie Calle at the Musée Picasso.

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le fétichiste (anonyme) - © christian berst — art brut

le fétichiste

This is the story of an anonymous photographic collection that surfaced from the secret depths to which it seemed doomed. Hundreds of amateur prints created over the course of a decade, between 1996 and 2006, that bear witness to the fetishistic habits of its author, manifested through pictures of legs covered with tights, taken either in the street or from a television screen. His practice evokes that of Miroslav Tichý, with the principal difference that our photographer sometimes becomes a subject himself. In both cases—as is often true with art brut—are the burning questions of the construction to which our gaze proceeds and of the collective imagination’s role in this individual[…]

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Tomasz Machcinski - © christian berst — art brut

Tomasz Machcinski

Tomasz Machciński (1942–2022), a war orphan and Polish laborer, dedicated 50 years of his life to creating over 22,000 photographic self-portraits. Ten years before Cindy Sherman, Machciński embarked on an intense quest for identity. Recently discovered, this monumental work has been acclaimed at the Rencontres d’Arles, Paris Photo, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and the Independent Art Fair in New York.

  • According to the artist’s wishes and in agreement with the Machciński Foundation, only 2,500 photographs from the estate will eventually be available for sale.
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Catalog
how I would like myself to “be” curator: marc donnadieu
comme je me voudrais “être” marc donnadieu - © christian berst — art brut

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

Press review
exposition : comme je me voudrais “être”
Chirine Hammouch, Art Press. March 21, 2024.
expo : comme je me voudrais “être”
Télérama. March 12, 2024.
être un homme (mâle)
Marc Lenot, Lunettes Rouges. March 4, 2024.
l’actualité des galeries, comme je me voudrais “être”
Christine Coste, L’Œil. March 1, 2024.
Comme je me voudrais être - En galerie
Christine Coste, Le Journal Des Arts. February 27, 2024.
View more
l’exposition comme je me voudrais “être” par marc donnadieu
Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou. February 14, 2024.
openings life lines + how I would myself to “be”
Happening Next. February 14, 2024.
Video
visite guidée marc donnadieu the bridge
how I would like myself to ‘be’ 

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