POLAROID, STORIES OF THE INTIMATE

THE EXHIBITION IS EXTENDED UNTIL MAY 17, 2018

Galerie &co119 is pleased to present the exhibition – Polaroid, Stories of the Intimate.

Since its beginnings, the Polaroid has closely linked its function to the memory of the intimate. Invited to large and small family events, friendly events, while traveling or at home, this small format is a symbol of the capture of a fragment.

A fragment of life, a fragment of emotion, it leaves the photographer with the search for a sketch made on the spot, which is shared a few moments later, when the image is revealed after having been incubated in the warmth of an underarm or the roundness of a chest against which it will have been placed to encourage the chemical process. Thus even in its own process of revelation, the Polaroid slips into the intimacy of those who create it.

For this exhibition, we have brought together five contemporary artists who use the Polaroid as a way of capturing and making “exceptional”, in their choice to fix it on an image-object, the intimate in all that it contains of most ordinary and banal. The private, initially reserved for the circle of guests who witnessed its creation, physically passing from hand to hand, is then shown to the eyes of an uninformed public. It is put on show and shared. The Polaroid photo-object, in its immediate imperfection, thus opens the way to a sublimation of the anecdotal which allows photographers to reinvent banality and allows us, spectators, to be the witnesses and accomplices of a staged intimacy.

Dancing, questioning, provoking our conception of ordinary intimacy, the images of Nobuyoshi Araki, Tokyo Rumando, Alex Marillat, Jeremy Stigter and Tom Bianchi presented in this exhibition form a dialogue that is as lively as it is poetic.

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Galerie &co119 is pleased to present the exhibition Polaroid, Récits de l'Intime. (Intimate Stories)

Since its beginnings, the Polaroid has served to capture one's most intimate moments. Present during important and informal family gatherings, during travels or at home, the compact Polaroid image became in a way the symbol of the recorded moment.

A fragment of life, a fragment of emotion, of which the photographer captures the essence of the immediate. Shared moments later, when the image is revealed after being nursed in the hollow of an underarm or against ones breast pocket, held there to encourage the chemical process. Thus, even when coming into being, the Polaroid picture becomes an intimate part of those who use it.

This exhibition brings together five contemporary artists, each of whom used the Polaroid as a way of revealing the “exceptional” of what makes intimacy in all that it includes: the ordinary and the banal. The private initially reserved for the intimate circle who participated in its creation, physically passed from hand to hand, over time becomes an object that is submitted to the gaze of a wider public. The Polaroid, photo object, in all its immediate imperfection, thus comes to sublimate to what was simply anecdotic and allows others not only to witness but also become an accomplishment to what may have started as a singular moment of staged intimacy.

Playful, questioning and provoking our idea of ​​what ordinary intimacy may mean, the images of Nobuyoshi Araki, Tokyo Rumando, Alex Marillat, Jeremy Stigter and Tom Bianchi presented in this exhibition form an engaging and poetic dialogue.