Dois Deles. In this exhibition the artist uses himself as the subject of his work. It seems like he was trying to transcend his own identity only to point out the oddness of the elements of our daily life.
Bernard Bouche Gallery is delighted to present the new series Dois deles by Portuguese artist Jorge Molder
Jorge Molder is a prominent representative of the mid-generation of Portuguese artists and an outstanding exponent of contemporary photography. The most important theme in his work is the absurd metaphysics of everyday human life. Most recently his work has revolved around the self-portrait, emphasising light and shadow, extreme angles and off-centre composition in an elegant visual language. Faced with a series of enlarged photos the viewer is confronted with intimacy at both the psychological and physical levels. The scale of the pieces evokes the cinematic screen while their occupation of space lends them a sculptural dimension. The viewer's physical proximity and his consequent involvement in the space of the work are actively sought. But these images are not 'self-portraits' in the common sense, because the figure which appears in them is not the result of the author's search for some internal authenticity, quite the opposite in fact, for it appears as a fictional figure. The artist uses large black-and-white photographs, Polaroids (Molder uses an SX 70), or printed zinc plates to create an ambiance, a web of often melancholy relations, clustered around a universe strewn with mirrors. His photographic thinking is not fixed to technical moments but to a visual thinking in essential forms within photography, film and painting.
Jorge Molder describes his method so: " I continued to use myself as a subject, but somehow I have been able to find, in this peculiar representation of myself, a character who is not entirely myself. Nonetheless, it cannot be anyone other than myself..."
Jorge Molder, born in 1947, lives in Lisbon, being one of the internationally well-known artists of his country. After graduating in Philosophy from the Faculdade de Letras of the Universidade Clássica de Lisboa, he held his first exhibition of photographic work in 1977. He joined the 22nd Biennale in São Paulo (1994) the 48th in Venice (1999) and took with his photo tableaus part in several international exhibitions. In December 2010 Molder was awarded with the important Portuguese art award EDP/Arte 2010
Opening: Wednesday, November 12
Galerie Bernard Bouche
123, rue Vieille du Temple, Paris
Hours: tue - sat 2-7p.m.