by ….well, at least if you want it to be highly conceptual!
Each and every year, I’m lucky enough to be able to attend Les Rencontres d’Arles, the most important photo festival in the world. A lot of exciting things are happening in Arles (friends, apero, exhibitions, openings, food, etc) and I will probably cover this in a future blog post. But today I’d like to share my thoughts about artistic statements.
In each and every exhibition, you have one. Sometimes they are interesting; sometimes they complement your understanding of the pictures. Sometimes they are totally ridiculous (imo). You know what I mean: the ones with 80% of words that are precious and mostly unknown. The ones where you have the feeling that the photographer spent more time thinking and writing the artistic statement than thinking and taking the pictures. One good example is Le Prix de la Decouverte. The exhibition shows pictures from ’emergent’ artists selected by galleries. Next time you go to Arles, take your time and read the ASs. I have heard photographers saying that they were written kind of randomly and that they were totally obscure.
I HAVE A GOOD NEWS! NOW YOU CAN LET YOUR COMPUTER GENERATE YOUR ARTISTIC STATEMENT FOR YOU.
See below the link to the generator. Simply answer a few questions and you’ll get instantly an impressive artistic statement, that could for sure be used in many contemporary exhibition.
Discover how to do it –> Yes I want to have the most conceptual Artistic statement ever
You don’t believe me? Have a look below. I have answered 4 questions and this is what the machine wrote for me. What do you think? Will you share yours?
Francois Laxalt (°1970, Paris, France) makes photos and sculptures. By applying a poetic and often metaphorical language, Laxalt creates intense personal moments masterfully created by means of rules and omissions, acceptance and refusal, luring the viewer round and round in circles.
His practice provides a useful set of allegorical tools for manoeuvring with a pseudo-minimalist approach in the world of photography: these meticulously planned works resound and resonate with images culled from the fantastical realm of imagination. By applying abstraction, he seduces the viewer into a world of ongoing equilibrium and the interval that articulates the stream of daily events. Moments are depicted that only exist to punctuate the human drama in order to clarify our existence and to find poetic meaning in everyday life.
His works sometimes radiate a cold and latent violence. At times, disconcerting beauty emerges. The inherent visual seductiveness, along with the conciseness of the exhibitions, further complicates the reception of their manifold layers of meaning. By emphasising aesthetics, he creates work in which a fascination with the clarity of content and an uncompromising attitude towards conceptual and minimal art can be found. The work is aloof and systematic and a cool and neutral imagery is used.
His works doesn’t reference recognisable form. The results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and possible interpretation becomes multifaceted. With a subtle minimalistic approach, he wants to amplify the astonishment of the spectator by creating compositions or settings that generate tranquil poetic images that leave traces and balances on the edge of recognition and alienation.
His works appear as dreamlike images in which fiction and reality meet, well-known tropes merge, meanings shift, past and present fuse. Time and memory always play a key role.
