THE MOVING IMAGE OR PHOTOGRAPHY AND AIKIDŌ

Hong Kong by night, February 2005 © Éric Petr

My path, in my reflection on the moving image

I was a passionate film photographer from 1983 to 1993. I developed my films and printed my photographs in a photo lab I borrowed from the Paris Airport.
Then I suddenly stopped photography. At that precise moment in its history, I undoubtedly felt that an earthquake had occurred, and that I no longer had a place in it. The digital world was emerging.

And so went the years without taking a single photograph and without touching a camera in the decade that followed.
When I look at my photo albums, I see a gaping hole of a decade’s worth of unprinted memories, some of which have disappeared into the depths of my subconscious.
The first lesson I learned from this deprivation of images is that photography, drawing and travel journals, beyond their beauty, are first and foremost an indispensable and necessary tool for memory.

But I had to step back from my obsessive and sickly relationship with the camera, and the ten years I’d been away from it made me aware of this, and gave me the distance I needed to reflect freely and without constraint on the power of the image, its role, its power, and above all, the way in which the photographic image could touch on the immaterial, the metaphysical, and express unspeakable emotions of the spiritual or invisible order.

And so it was that this decade of gestation, which was accompanied by an intense practice of uncompromising Aikidō, changed my view of the world, or rather, brought to it an acuity that until then had met with some difficulty in expressing itself clearly within me.

It’s also undeniable that Aikidō, in its pure practice, traditional approach, intensive training and regular meditation, provides access to a wider field of spiritual knowledge and our relationship with the universe.
This is how Aikidō has helped me so much and continues to bring me this depth in the conception of my photography.

I would like to express my gratitude to Armand Mamy-Rahaga and Michel Kovaleff who, through their practice of a fair and uncompromising martial art, have helped me to find a path in my reflection, and to resume my photographic work with the strength that Aiki gives us.

Koh Chang 2002 © Éric Petr
Twelfth exposure of a first-ever photo film made after a ten-year hiatus from photography.

So in December 2002, after a ten-year hiatus, I took up photography again, where I had left off in 1993, but with a more structured coherence than my work of the 80s had produced.

It was a chance encounter with a 12-exposure disposable Pocket Instamatic Kodak, initiated by a trip from Thailand to Cambodia. 
Twelve great moments of emotion!
Just twelve photos taken during a trip to the ends of the earth is like holding your breath until the end.
On this trip, I learned to take my time, to search my subconscious for the triggering breath of the photographic click, the pleasure of the release.
I realized that photography is, above all, about listening to our universe.

The first photographic works I produced from 2003 onwards (Tōkyō under the rain_2oo3, Bangkok_2oo4, TrAveRséE2nUiT_2oo4, Windows_2oo5, and others), constitute the foundations and underpinnings of a knowledge acquired during this decade of interruption in photographic practice.

The three images I’m presenting today from 2005 are highly representative of my style. My photography not only uses light as the primary constituent of the work, but is also distinguished by its ability to capture the subtlest details of a scene or place, transforming visible objects and magnifying their secret perception. Through this gaze, each image becomes a kind of visual poem, where the invisible takes shape, and the viewer is invited to discover a world all his or her own, while remaining connected to the universal human experience.

These images from my Hong Kong by night series, taken in February 2005, attempt to reproduce the ineffable atmosphere of Asian cities, bringing with them what will become my signature as a photographer, that aspect of dense, poetic luminous matter, that dreamlike atmosphere and that feeling of timelessness.
Although these images were taken twenty years ago, their power makes us forget the poor quality of the digital camera used at the time, which remains a feat.

Hong Kong by night, February 2005 © Éric Petr

My photographic work will continue uninterrupted within the framework of this reflection on light, movement, space and time.
I have named this photographic process to define it: “in situ kinetic photography” or “photographie cinétique in situ”.

This work continues today with my Variations de Lumière but also, and always, with 光 (Hikari), Métamorphoses or my Spirituelles Odyssées which gave rise to the publication of a numbered and signed book in 2016, by Corridor Éléphant, Éditeur de photographies contemporaines.

This work on light and movement, which I began to disseminate on social networks in 2010, remained largely unknown to photographers and the general public. My numerous publications gave way, little by little, to a photographic trend that other photographers, in turn, took up and developed on their own, then named in the years 2015 “Intentional Camera Movement”.

I’m happy to be one of the very first investigators of this photographic movement, and to name but a few who preceded me, Kōtarō Tanaka (1905-1995), Ernst Haas (1921-1986), and also my contemporary Alexey Titarenko (b. 1962), who for his part worked specifically on crowds in motion.

I personally see myself as a photographer who has concentrated all my work and efforts over the course of my life on this principal reflection of the moving image, creating a totally unique style.

Hong Kong by night, February 2005 © Éric Petr

ABSTRACT CONVERGENCE | FUZHOU CHINA 2024-2025

I’m delighted to announce my participation in the Réalités Nouvelles Hors les Murs exhibition in Fuzhou, China!

§ – § – §

抽象融合 – ABSTRACT CONVERGENCE


ACADEMIC SUPPORT ・ 学米支持
OLIVIER DI PIZIO ・ 奥利维尔 • 迪埃 • 皮齐奥

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ・ 艺未总临
JEAN-PIERRE BERTOZZI ・ 让-皮埃尔 • 贝尔托齐
BOGUMILA STROJNA ・ 博古米拉 • 斯特罗伊纳

CURATOR:ZHEN XI
策展人:甄熙

07.12.2024 〜 28.02.2025

法国新现实协会
艺术家群展
EXHIBITION
ARTIST COLLECTIVE
RÉALITÉS NOUVELLES – PARIS
www.realitesnouvelles.org

展覧地点|EXHIBITION PLACE
福建省福州市晋安区宦溪镇 桂湖美术馆
Guihu Art Museum, Yuxi City, Jin’an District, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province

Baidu Maps: map.baidu.com/search/桂湖美术馆/

About the G-Lake Art Gallery at the Guihu Museum of Art・桂湖美术馆

The Guihu Art Museum is located in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province. It is committed to exploring the connotation of local Fujian culture in depth, and to presenting various academic research and artistic practices in a variety of exhibition formats. In addition to the exhibition, the Guihu Art Museum will also organize various special lectures, salons, workshops and literary fashion activities, and is equipped with independent libraries, public classrooms and cafés.

The art museum has long supported Fujian’s new generation of artists and cooperated closely with local art lovers and cultural and rural groups. It has also regularly invited art groups, artists, curators, designers and writers from outside Fujian province and around the world to make resident creations in Fujian. At the same time, the art gallery will also actively promote cultural exchange across the Strait.

Images and architectural presentation of the Guihu Art Museum

www.gooood.cn/g-lake-art-gallery-by-vhd-design-group.htm

Participating Artists・参展艺术家

Click on images to enlarge

ABOUT MY ARTWORK

VARIATIONS DE LUMIÈRE OPUS 5
Photographic triptych 2021 (33x150cm)
Copy #2/3 (+1 EA)

This opus is a continuation of a reflection on the essence of light and its effect on the perception of Being in its immediate or cosmic environment.

Light fascinates me by the duality of its state, at once  corpuscular and undulatory, but also for everything that makes it our perception of the world.

My ” Variations de Lumière “, arranged by opus, present images born of my observation of light, revealing the gap in perception between the photographed reality and the photographic record.

It’s a metaphor, but I’d say that the medium of photography is particularly well-suited to this study, because the photons that strike my negative, materialized by impact points on the emulsion layer of silver halide crystals, or on the low-pass filter of a sensor, describe the corpuscular nature of light during the shooting phase.

Similarly, this material, used as a material, underlines the wave-like nature of light, when these impacts on the negative become oscillations on the paper.

From this observation of photons recorded at a moment ” T ” in their infinite course through the cosmos, at a precise point in the universe, comes this writing of light.

INSITU KINETIC PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIA HÉMÉRÉ

Spiritual Odysseys 0x80532E01 ©️ Éric Petr
Photography 2020, very long exposure in situ with different shooting angles #insitukineticphotography

「 Éric PETR, born in the 60s, worked in the 80s, and later, in the early 2000s, on the image set in motion with an artistic intention using a camera.

This technique was named several years later “Intentional Camera Movement”, taken up by the hashtags #icm or #icmphotography and is today widely taken up by many talented young photographers.

Following the dynamics of several photographers and visual artists who preceded him, such as Kōtarō Tanaka (1905-1995), Ernst Haas (1921-1986), and Alexey Titarenko (born in 1962) of his generation and a few other experimentalists, PETR in turn experimented with this artistic path mainly between 2003 and 2015. Unlike his peers, he made it the heart of his photographic work.

For about ten years, PETR has created a movement and a technique that allow him to serve his intention and his research work on light. This technique, which he calls [Insitu Kinetic Photography], is the basis of his work, and has allowed him to set up many works that he has experimented with, particularly in abstract photography or subjective abstraction photography.

PETR began his career as a professional photographer in 2013 after 20 years of photographic research. After having caught the attention of some contemporary art players, between 2011 and 2014 where he assembled a synthesis of his work on light on his Blog and Instagram, he began in 2016 to be revealed in some prestigious magazines, such as L’OEIL DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE, to be exhibited at the SALON DES RÉALITÉS NOUVELLES and to be published by Éditions CORRIDOR ÉLÉPHANT with his first monograph “SPIRITUELLES ODYSSÉES”. Since then, PETR has chained publications and exhibitions in Paris, and in the World. 」

© Maria Héméré, art critic

FROM “ICM” TO “IN SITU KINETIC PHOTOGRAPHY”

Bangkok 2oo4 © Éric Petr [Intentional Camera Movement]

“in situ kinetic photography”
first principle of a manifesto

I started practicing photography in 1983, and for ten years I had this idea of developing a research and aesthetic based on light, and the impact that light can have on our mind, our thoughts, and our perception of the universe.

I resumed this work in 2003, after taking a break from photography between 1993 and 2003.
Nevertheless, my reflection on the image nourished this period of inactivity, which subsequently proved very rich and constructive for my photographic work.

Ten years later, in 2003, after thinking long and hard about the image, its role and its power, I continued my photographic work on light, as plastic or matter, with a fresh eye.

“Bangkok 2oo4” and other works from the same period show a body of work that drew inspiration from this time of reflection, introspection and maturation.

In this new era of digital imaging, this style of photography was not yet precisely named, but a decade later it was, under the name ICM (Intentional Camera Movement).

光 0x1853AC © Éric Petr, 2020 [in situ kinetic photography]

In the 20th century, some photographers devoted part of their work to this technical aspect of motion photography, such as, to name but a few, Kōtarō Tanaka (1905-1995), Ernst Haas (1921-1986), and Alexey Titarenko (b. 1962), who worked specifically on moving crowds.

In the early 2000s, my work on the moving image, with the idea of painting with light on my film or sensor, is very contemporary in approach, and remains on the bangs.

My work, which is based on the principle of intentional movement, has now evolved to bring a broader field to the ICM, which I call “in situ kinetic photography”.
“In situ kinetic photography” brings a wider field to the “intentional camera movement” and takes into account different axes and planes, in situ, for the same exposure that oscillates from a few seconds to a few minutes.

“In situ kinetic photography” is similar to the ultrasound of a place that is produced like a micro-film, but which is recorded on a single image. It is therefore neither multiple exposures nor post-processing work. Its photography is part of the field of abstraction, or subjective abstraction. Its writing is done with light and photons constitute its alphabet. Its language is cosmic, its style dreamlike and its aesthetic plastic. This photography is similar to painting in the sense that it is constructed on site by composing the elements that are added to the image.

The brush or pencil is the light ray that contains the matter and energy of electromagnetic waves, while the canvas or paper is the film or the camera sensor. Unlike the painter or the calligrapher, it is not the brush that moves, but the support, that is to say the camera.
It is also, in this sense, that the intention of “in situ kinetic photography” is in no way that of “light painting”, even if we can observe certain common points.

For this photograph, composed in situ, elements very dispersed on the site are carefully chosen to compose a photographic painting. After an analysis of the times allowing the addition of the elements to be photographed, the photographer will have to determine precisely the speed of the shutter, the aperture of the focal length, and the sensitivity of the film, according to any filters added.

For “in situ kinetic photography”, the intention is no longer movement, as in “intentional camera movement”, but that of constructing an abstract image with a plastic density that will suggest the superposition of quantum states of a geographical point that light crosses during its infinite odyssey.

Éric Petr | 0xB09FE203
The fight of the Amazons | Metamorphoses 0xB09FE203 © Éric Petr, 2019 [in situ kinetic photography]
Éric Petr | 0x480DF803
光 0x480DF803 © Éric Petr, 2014 [in situ kinetic photography]
Éric Petr | 0x7077 Variations of Light opus 0 (Nikon F3) Le Lavandou 1980's
Variations of Light opus 0, Le Lavandou 1980’s © Éric Petr | Nikon F3, film Kodak
Variations of Light opus 5 [Triptyk 2021] 65x300cm © Éric Petr [in situ kinetic photography]

ABSTRACT CONVERGENCE | SHENYANG 2024

Variations of Light opus 5 [click on the image to enlarge it]

I’m delighted to announce my participation in the Réalités Nouvelles Hors les Murs exhibition in Shenyang, China!

§ – § – §

抽象融合 – ABSTRACT CONVERGENCE

学米支持
ACADEMIC SUPPORT
奥利维尔 -迪埃-皮齐奥
OLIVIER DI PIZIO
艺未总临
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
徐比莉
EMILY XU

策展人:甄熙
COMMISSARIAT:ZHENXI

14.09 〜 17.11.2024

法国新现实协会
艺术家群展
EXHIBITION BY ARTIST COLLECTIVE
RÉALITÉS NOUVELLES – PARIS

展覧地点|SHOWROOM
沈阳市铁西区兴华北街8号
1905文化创意园1905艺术空间

Click on each image to enlarge

ABOUT MY ARTWORK

VARIATIONS DE LUMIÈRE OPUS 5
Photographic triptych 2021 (33x150cm)
Copy #2/3 (+1 EA)

This opus is a continuation of a reflection on the essence of light and its effect on the perception of Being in its immediate or cosmic environment.

Light fascinates me by the duality of its state, at once  corpuscular and wave-like, but also for everything that makes it our perception of the world.

My “Variations de Lumière” (Variations of Light), arranged by opus, are images born of my observation of light, revealing the gap in perception between photographed reality and the photographic record.

It is a metaphor, but I would say that the medium of photography is particularly well-suited to this study, because the photons that strike my negative, materialized by impact points on the emulsion layer of silver halide crystals, or on the low-pass filter of a sensor, describe the corpuscular nature of light during the shooting phase.

Similarly, this material, used as a material, underlines the wave-like nature of light, when these impacts on the negative become oscillations on the paper.

From this observation of photons recorded at a moment “T” in their infinite course through the cosmos, at a precise point in the universe, comes this writing of light.

A LONG-TERM CURRICULUM…

Le Lavandou 1980’s © Éric Petr | Nikon F3, film Kodak

These photographs, taken with a Nikon F3, mounted with a Nikkor 50mm f1.4 or 105mm f2.5 lens and Kodak film, bear witness to my highly creative period in the ’80s.
They show, in successive order: the beach at Le Lavandou, the outside fire escape at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and a broken window in the former wasteland of Les Halles de la Villette in Paris.

The first silver photograph was a precursor to the work I’m still doing today.
Taken at night, on the beach at Le Lavandou, with an exposure time of around 15 minutes, and shot at 720°, it recreates the electromagnetic atmosphere of a vacation and party spot, its beach, the black reflections of the sea and the rolling of the waves, the lights of boats, stars, the moon, coastal lighthouses and bars still barely lit.

A LONG-TERM COURSE… “who goes slowly, goes healthily”!

I took up photography in 1983, and spent ten passionate years with the idea of developing research and aesthetics based on “pure” light, and the impact it can have on our mind, our thoughts, or our perception of the universe.

The research I had begun on this subject was halted in 1993 by the upheaval caused by  the arrival of digital technology in the world of photography.

It wasn’t until 10 years later, in 2003, after giving a great deal of thought to the image, its role and its power, that I took up this reflection and work again, using two media: digital and film photography.

In 2013, I opted to set up a company to develop this work over the long term.

Today, I exhibit and show my work in Paris, Europe and abroad.

Are you interested in following my work, discovering my new creations, and receiving invitations to my openings?
You can register at this link: https: //www.ericpetr.net/contact/

Les Halles de la Villette Paris 1980’s © Éric Petr | Nikon F3, film Kodak

ABSTRACT PROPOSALS | PHOTOGRAPHY

zz Blog Abstract Project Paris exhibition January 2024 Comm banner

I’m pleased to invite you to the opening of the “Propositions Abstraites” photography exhibition, Wednesday January 24, 6-9pm.

EXHIBITION
January 25 to February 3, 2024
open Wednesday to Saturday, 2 to 7 p.m.

ABSTRACT PROJECT GALLERY
5 rue des Immeubles Industriels
75011 PARIS metro Nation
www.abstract-project.com

#170

ABSTRACT PROPOSALS
PHOTOGRAPHY
For the second time, Abstract Project gallery presents an exhibition focusing on photography, its practices and its approach to non-figurative abstraction.
The widespread availability and distribution of photographic possibilities has increased personal production tenfold, fostering experimentation and generating, in its continuous flow, abstract images from professionals, amateurs or simple opportunities to look.
Avoiding an exhaustive panorama of this research, we wanted to invite artists close to the Réalités Nouvelles movement, whether photographers, painters or visual artists, to present their occasional or regular practice of abstraction in photography.
By looking at the various media not in silos, but as tools that interact, feed off and support each other, the exhibition highlights how these artistic disciplines influence artists in their approach to abstract photography, and set them apart.

Exhibition initiated by Michel-Jean DUPIERRIS and Jun SATO with…

Caroline BOUCHER
Florian BOUXIN
Charlotte BRASSEAU
Michel CARDOT
Marcel CROZET
Denise DEMARET-PRANVILLE
Philippe Henri DOUCET
Hippolyte DUPONT
Elisabeth LAPLANTE
Éric PETR
Jun SATO
Marie-Françoise SERRA
Yoann YVONNET

zz 光 0x308518BF Éric Petr | Blog Abstract Project Exhibition Paris January 2024
Click on image to enlarge

Title: Hikari 0x308518BF
Year: 2023
Copy: #1/3
Size: 19 x 19 cm [Cadre 32 x 32 cm]
Technique: Digital photography in situ Nikon DF, Nikkor Q135. Lucia Pro pigment inks on Hahnemühle Fine Art Pearl 285g paper.
Print made at Éric Petr Studio inspiration

zz Blog Abstract Project Exhibition Paris January 2024
Click on the image to display the Flyer

MURMURS 2023 @ CNFAP | ささやき

ささやき 0x604ABB51 (détail) © Éric Petr (2023


I am happy to announce the MURMURS exhibition
organized by the CNFAP at the La Ville A des Arts gallery in Paris 18th from 4.10 to 15.10.2023 and bringing together 41 visual artists who will express themselves on the theme of murmurs.
A Vernissag will be held on this occasion on October 3 at 6:30 p.m. 🥂✨


Participating artists:
Ayasaky Rikka – Barrovecchio Luc – Bauer Caroline – Belin Hélène – Bismuth Mélina – Blauth Lurdi – Braun Guy – Brebel Catherine – Bry Christine – Burdeos Rosa –  Collandre Françoise – Dubois Tristan – Dudret Geneviève – Edouard André – Ferru Magdéleine – Fourmestraux Éric – François Claudine – Gendre-Bergère Christine – Gérodez Jean-Claude – Gehand Annie – Guyon Spennato Elizabeth – Jäggi Andreas – Kouninioti Catherina – Koyama-Meyer Stéphane – Lambrechts Marc – Loquen Claudine – Lorsa – Nassor Carine – NEL – Pedeau-Said Geneviève – Pelouze Anny – Petr Éric – Pichereau Alain – Pourny Anne – Sartori Ana – Searle Patrick – Shahnaei Najine – Souliotis Dimitrios – Sustrac Bernard – Tralongo Pauline – Vuerich Franco

§ § §

USEFUL INFORMATIONS

The Ville A des Arts
15 rue Hégésippe Moreau
75018 Paris
Metro Place de Clichy lines 2 & 13

Open every day: from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Free entry access
Presence of artists on site

About the CNFAP
French National Council of Plastic Arts
www.cnfap-artsplastiques.org

The French National Council for the Plastic Arts is the French National Committee that officially represents France in the IAAA (International Association of the Plastic Arts), an NGO under the auspices of UNESCO, and issues a professional artist card.
Under the impulse of the General Direction of Arts and Letters of the Ministry of National Education, the CNFAP was created in 1956.
It includes, among its founding members, 20 eminent artists, including : Georges BRAQUE, Roger CHAPELAIN-MIDY, André DUNOYER de SEGONZAC, Marcel GROMAIRE, Marie LAURENCIN, André LHOTE…

Click to download the poster

ささやき 0x608EBF51

MY EXHIBITED ARTWORK


The two exhibited works are part of a short photographic novella「ささやき」produced in Japan in May 2023.

ささやき (Sasayaki), in Japanese, means “MurmurS”, the title of the theme “Murmures” in French.

These photographs are, for those who know how to listen to silence, the murmur of nature.

While my photographic artwork tirelessly questions the murmurs of the universe, I did not think that the waves that I captured that night in Kanazawa, in dialogue with the moon, transmitted to me a vibration heralding the 6.5 magnitude earthquake which occurred a few hours later, on May 5, 2023 at 2:42 p.m. in Ishikawa Prefecture.

Everything is just a murmur of these waves which constantly pass through us and transmit to us in their infinite trajectory, the echo of the World, if indeed we can interpret it.


Photographs, Hahnemühle B&R Rag 310g paper, light oak wooden box and anti-reflective and anti-UV museum glass.
From left to right (below):
ささやき 0x608EBF51 (2023) 30x30cm #1/3 (+1AP)
and ささやき 0x604ABB51 (2023) 30x30cm #1/3 (+1AP)

PARIS KYŌTO | NEW REALITIES HORS LES MURS > RETROSPECTIVE

Photograph shown in Kyōto © Éric Petr 光0x58B17F46

ABSTRACT ART ー WORKS ON PAPER
The New Realities exhibition | Paris Kyōto 2023 Hors les Murs

The exhibition of NEW REALITIES > PARIS KYŌTO < [abstract works on paper] held at the KYŌTO INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HOUSE (KOKOKA) in the city of Kyōto from April 26 to 30, 2023, during the Kyōtographie International Festival, was an event nurtured by some very fine encounters.
A mainly Japanese public came to see this exhibition, encouraging a highly constructive exchange in the spirit of opening up art and culture beyond national borders.

An opening ceremony was held on April 26, the day of the Vernissage, by Mr Fujita Hiroyuki, Director of the Kokoka hosting the exhibition, and Mr Jun Sato, organizer of the Réalités Nouvelles event.
Also for this occasion, Mrs. Mikiko Tanaka, Member of the Kyōto Prefectural Assembly, and Mr. Masayoshi Imamura came to arrange two sumptuous bouquets of flowers that lit up the space throughout this magnificent exhibition.
This event was also an opportunity to welcome an elementary school class, and drawing workshops and exchanges with the artists were organized to raise awareness of abstract art among this very young audience.

Video presentation of the exhibition at the end of the hanging
Floral arrangement by Mikiko Tanaka さん and Masayoshi Imamura さん
The Artists (from left to right): Akane Masano さん, Shigekazu Tonomura さん,
Yasushi Furutake さん (visiting artist), Éric Petr and Okayoko さん

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

JAPANESE ARTISTS 🇯🇵
OKAYOKO( おかよこ )
Hiromi SATO( 佐藤 ひろみ )
Shigekazu TONOMURA(とのむら 茂一 )
Akane MASANO( まさの あかね )

ARTISTS OF NEW REALITIES 🇫🇷
Mohamed AKSOUH
Sandrine ARS-COIGNARD
Maria ARVELAIZ-GORDON
Joanick BECOURT
Milija BELIC
Roger BENSASSON
Joël BESSE
Christine BOIRY
Francesc BORDAS
Claire BORDE
Caroline BOUCHER
Carol-Ann BRAUN
Jeanne CHARTON
Anne COMMET
Ralph CUTILLO
Claire DE CHAVAGNAC
Diane DE CICCO
DELNAU
Olivier DI PIZIO
Bernard DIDELLE
Philippe Henri DOUCET
Gilles DROUIN
Yannick DUBLINEAU
Sahar FOROUTAN
Alain GUILLON
Héloïse GUYARD
Frédéric HENNINGER
Stefanie HEYER
Ingrid HORNEF
Mary-Christine JALADON
Bernard JEUFFROY
Françoise KULESZA
Erik LEVESQUE
Alain LONGUET
Pascal MAHOU
Cristina MARTINEZ
Sylvie MARY
Jean-Paul MEISER
Celia MIDDLEMISS
Munira NAQUI
Jean NAVAILH
Roland ORÉPÜK
Paola PALMERO
Ana PÉREZ VENTURA
Éric PETR
Laurence REBOH
Jun SATO
Marie-Françoise SERRA
Madeleine SINS
Bogumila STROJNA
François SUPIOT
Sandrine THIÉBAUD-MATHIEU
Marine VU
Jacques WEYER

THE PLACE

Kyoto International Community House (kokoka)
2-1 Torii-cho, Awataguchi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8536 JAPAN
tel : +8175-752-3010
https://www.kcif.or.jp/

Exhibition organized with The New Realities Paris
http://www.realitesnouvelles.org

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CHANCE, MERELY SYNCHRONY

The Battle of the Amazons | Metamorphoses 0xB09FE203 © Éric Petr, 2o2o

“My work constitutes a thought process on the nature of light – a quest for its essence.

I borrow light, in its most primitive form, as raw material, as the foundation, the architecture of my entire photography. Light is not used as something that can show or illuminate what is around us, but only for what it really is, for its undulating, corpuscular nature.

I fashion this light in such a way that its filtering, reflection or dazzling may redefine the space I happen to be in and offer a different perception of the world.

I ask the question of whether our actual perception is but a placement of our own selves in relation to the universe, and as a result, if this perception shapes our own comprehension of reality, or should I say, of a certain reality.

My work is part of a meditative endeavor, but one where I am personally detached from any introspection. I like the idea of being crossed by atoms, of feeling so vast that we have a sense of being in every place at once, yet also focused on just one point, the one my camera happens to be located in. I engage in long working sessions to record the vibration of a place, its atomic resonance, or its indecipherable atmosphere, and like a film whose duration plays out in just one image, a story unfolds according to the diction of scenography and movement whose inspiration is in sync with the elements composing this very place.

In my work on the “Metamorphoses”, light intervenes in a specific way on the reflection of objects, so that their scene setting in situ creates figures akin to dilated bodies, figures composed of floating ethers coalescing in complex and destructured shapes that the image, when developed, restores, as if they conformed to a potential reality.

These bodies do not belong to space or time, nor do they belong to our world, they are but aggregates of waves and particles locked in a perpetual motion, elements which come and collide with my inverted T wave, just for one, brief moment.

My photographic writing is direct, that’s to say that it enters into a narrow relationship with the material. It is born from a meeting that takes but an instant, fixed on the border of temporality, caught between a being and the universe. This is what we could call a point of contact between Heaven and Earth.

There is no such thing as chance, merely synchrony. My meeting with the DF Art Project is of this nature. I would never have thought that there could exist as many common points.

And if this beautiful meeting with Déstructuralisme Figuratif took place, it is also because all the elements had come together so that my work could contribute a humble stone to their edifice. And above all, the DF Art Project involves a communion of individuals around a societal thought on human beings and the infinite possibilities of transgressing their shape through a fragmentation of the figure. A whole aspect of my work enters into consonance with this position, one where figures dilate, and where this full expansion of my imagery aptly questions the conceptualization of these shapes and their quantic connection to reality.”

by Éric Petr

About Figurative Destructuralism

The structure DF Art Project, represented by the Figurative Destructuralism movement, is an artistic collective of living plastic artists sharing a vision of art which is common to them and by which artistic work is oriented towards a fragmentation of what is real. This reality is put into perspective, distorted or dynamically transformed.

Through this conceptualization, the artists position themselves against a rising tide of individualism, where human exchange has given way to rampant loneliness. Their introspective focuses on analysis and the multidimensional creation, where the surreal comes to the fore and where, more generally, new less human, more virtual interactions are created.

These perceptions aim to reveal, through what could be called an optimistic rally cry, a situation, probably generational, of a globalized society in the throes of mutation facing – a society faced with an uncertain, ever-changing future.

Through artistic creation, the DF Art Project presents its considerations on a society where true possibilities for the emancipation of mankind as well as like the independence of human imagination are being redefined.

https://df-artproject.com/en/