exposition 09

Espaceculture - between June 23 and July 11, 10h to 18h45, except Sunday
varnishing June 23, 18h

Engrammes by Valérie Sarrouy

"Light  : this can now go from a « cleanly » lit and exposed image to the complete destruction of «clean» ; from total white to total black. Millions of nuances are now offered to us, the poetry of shadows, of over and under exposition." Jonas Mekas, 8th of August 1963 Excerpt from the Ciné-journal, un nouveau cinéma americain (1959-1971) What instantly convinced me about the proposition of Hélène, Claude and the Festival “Images Contre Nature” team, is the place itself: the second floor of the Espaceculture in Marseilles. A room bathed in a spectral, insolent, frontal light. Immense windows opening onto an overexposed city. On one side the old port which seems to watch us more than we watch it with that “sun projector” fixed on our faces, on the other, building fronts from another age. Installing my sombre photographs next to these already existing immense immaculate images has something supernatural and cinematographic about it. Between moving and static, what interests me is the paradox that exists between the river with its running water that never returns and the reflection of the moon which stays. However a tight link is woven between the two images : the poesy that is found in the matter of the image itself, its corporeality. Thus , the body of the image can be given to the spectator with contemplation and emotion moment.

Valérie Sarrouy “The Ready Made, Duchamp tells us is a “meeting”. It is the critical moment by which art is revealed to only be, at a given moment, the real it is.” Jacques Sivan Marcel Duchamp en 2 temps, 1 mouvement Artist's statement Photography is a chemical reaction which brings things to consciousness so that they are in the instant and non permanence. In my photography, there is a surging lightning presence. I let the event produce itself on film, I don't control it. The title Engrammes is an evocation of the biological traces left by memory in the brain. A sharp attention to light followed by a chemical process allows me to put into form these invisible traces and obtain, as if from a dream, underground images. I started taking photos with Diana – a rudimentary plastic camera – in 1997 at the National School of Photography in Arles. I wanted to get rid of technique and a certain sacredness of shooting. The penny dropped during a car accident. My cameran hit one of my friends. Several days later I was offered a toy camera which seemed light and inoffensive to me. Life is always more important. 2008 "Chambres avec vues", group exhibition in the Hotel Cheval Blanc at Nîmes with the gallery Negpos. Presentation of the "Engrammes 2". 2007 "Engrammes 2", gallery De Visu, Marseille. 2005-2006 exhibition with FOTO POVERA by Yannick Vigouroux, Photographic Centre of île de France, Le Havre and Sallaumines. 2004-2005 Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco Photo Salon with the galerry 19th/ 21st, USA. 2003 Engrammes 1, price "Saison des éditions Filigranes". 2001-2002 Gradiva, laureate "Attention Talent Photo" of the Fnac Paris. Exhibition at the "Ateliers de l’Image" of Saint Rémy de Provence. 1999 Group exhibition with the gallery "Médiatine" of Bruxelles : "L’objet/La série". Curated : Christian Gattinoni. 1998 "Récits d’errance ou le voyage immobile" presented during the Festival of Savignano in Italia 1997 Group exhibition with the school of art of Cheltenam in England : "La perception et la représentation de l’espace". tel.: 33 6 60 86 22 59 email http://www.photosapiens.com/ http://www.lacritique.org/ http://www.flickr.com/