The exhibition Un art de la disparition forges a link between the works of Genevan artists Jacques Berthet (born in 1949) and Martin Widmer (born in 1972).
It evokes the absence of the human figure in places where we least expect it, i.e. in a city in the daytime in the case of Jacques Berthet’s series Rumeur sur la ville, and in a mirror in the case of Martin Widmer. It is not just a city emptied of its inhabitants that is evoked by Jacques Berthet’s photographs—they were taken for the Construction Department of the Canton of Geneva, just before the demonstration against the G8 in 2003—they also show a city walled in behind yellow fences, cut out and constructed with a watchmaker’s precision, a city barricaded against an unknown assailant. Martin Widmer’s new seriesObjets VII “Miroir” counters the popular belief that photography is a mirror. The artist puts forward the reverse argument by photographing mirrors and their reflection, in which neither his eye nor that of his camera appear. Un art de la disparition also echoes questions about urban development, a constant in the interest taken in “documentary style” in the CPG’s programming over the last 15 years, and in metaphotography (a photograph that questions photography) such as the work regularly undertaken in the CPG’s photographic laboratory, whether with fALSEfAKES in 2013, or with the Fétichismarchandiseexhibition that precedes this one, and also with Caméra(Auto)Contrôlethat follows it.
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Délaissant la sculpture, le travail de Martin Widmer s’est resserré depuis deux ans sur la photographie, qui s’avère plus adaptée à approfondir les thématiques structurant son travail. Widmer prend comme point de départ des environnements banals, familiers, qu’il photographie avec rigueur et distanciation, ceci dans des cadrages inhabituels. Il en résulte des images étranges, parfois abstraites, qui questionnent d’une façon pertinente la relation complexe que le cliché pho [...]
Délaissant la sculpture, le travail de Martin Widmer s’est resserré depuis deux ans sur la photographie, qui s’avère plus adaptée à approfondir les thématiques structurant son travail. Widmer prend comme point de départ des environnements banals, familiers, qu’il photographie avec rigueur et distanciation, ceci dans des cadrages inhabituels. Il en résulte des images étranges, parfois abstraites, qui questionnent d’une façon pertinente la relation complexe que le cliché photographique entretient avec son référent dans la réalité.
