Recent images which relate to contemporary politics and religion
Curatated by Sophie Legrandjacques
Although she has been using film since 1995, Lidwien van de Ven (The
Netherlands) is above all a photographer. Since 1985 she has been
developing a meditation on the meaning of the image. After having notably
photographed buildings that bear witness to major historical changes, such
as the Reichstag or the Berlin Olympic stadium, she has now turned to the
themes of politics and religion and their re-creation in images by the
press. Above all, she asks questions about the unseen in events covered by
the media.
She therefore travels the world and frequently occupies the same sites of
investigation as journalists, where she explores questions of
representation, of the mechanics of image perception, of what is
visible or invisible. However, the images that she makes do not obey the
rules of photojournalism (the search for the spectacular, the immediate
perception of that which is represented...). Hand printed in large format
black and white, her images often record that which is outside the frame
of news stories, keeping to the margins of events and engaging the viewer
in a "slow motion" reading.
The Grand Cafe exhibition shows recent images made in the Middle East and
in Europe, which relate to contemporary politics and religion. Whether
presented as "paintings" or as urban billboard posters, Lidwien van de
Ven's images do not strictly-speaking suggest a counter-report. They
carefully investigate the frontier between reality and representation,
image and language, news and contemporary history, while leaving whole the
enigma of the visible.
Opening date: Saturday 29th from 6 PM
Meeting with Lidwien van de Ven: Sunday 30th at 4PM
Le Grand Cafe, Centre d'Art Contemporain
Place des Quatre Z'Horloges, 44600 Saint-Nazaire (France)
Hours: Daily (except Monday) 2PM to 7PM,
Sunday 3PM to 6PM