Photos: Jeu de Paume, Paris. 2005.
7/7 stands for 7 series: seven “stories” about survivors; ghosts and memories that one repeats indefinitely or stays quiet about, that one holds in, stories that last a lifetime, that go back and forth between the –infra and the –extra, the untold, the backflow, the silence and in contrast, the overflowing, a great feat that discreetly makes sense when one stops “describing” a world in which our understanding of violence and death have been lost
The exhibition 7/7 could be one exhibition (with all seven series’) or seven individual exhibitions.
In 2001 Guillaume Herbaut traveled to investigate the remnants of the human cataclysm : Tchernobyl.
Back in France, he writes a book about the survivors of the “nuclear” town : the Tchernobylsty is a sort of introduction book to the 7/7 collection. It begins with the series 4/7 : Slavoutich, named after this new city already burdened by a painful memory, where the Tchernobylsty families were relocated after the drama. A “town poisoned”.
Over a period of 7 years, Guillaume Herbaut builds a project on the fringe of his usual approach to photojournalism. 7/7 recalls this drama and reactivates it even though the climax is off topic, focusing exclusively on “inactualities” (Michel Poivert) : traumatising events that impacted on men and the environment are the actual subjects behind the 95 images of 7/7. Therefore, the whole collection focuses on what has happened since the tragedy. It gives priority to details which talk about a more or less recent past, so painful that any attempts of removal seem vain.
Photo: Pavillon Carré de Baudouin. Paris. 2012.
7/7 stands for 7 series: seven “stories” about survivors; ghosts and memories that one repeats indefinitely or stays quiet about, that one holds in, stories that last a lifetime, that go back and forth between the –infra and the –extra, the untold, the backflow, the silence and in contrast, the overflowing, a great feat that discreetly makes sense when one stops “describing” a world in which our understanding of violence and death have been lost.
Learning from other peoples’ existentialist experience is a harsh way to learn – a nightmare. Their local dramas, their news in brief, their personal tragedies or cases that found universal coverage (it’s just a matter of scale), their ecological disasters, their killing technologies… Thirst for progress, desire for power, revenge, cruelty… Mankind is at the very core of this issue. Loss is a more accurate term.
7/7 works like “Remember your mortality” sequences in front of which feelings evolve : a lack of understanding regarding absurdity, vertigo regarding the atrocity of some crimes, and eventually…disillusion …
7/7 reminds us, above all, of our weaknesses, starting with the author’s own weakness.
In this artwork (that can be considered as a piece of the post romantic genre), nature is omnipresent (dustbowl landscapes, forests…) even in the curtains with their stylish patterns and the carpets which seem to invade all the room space. Man and photographer are one. Life and artwork are interlinked without any limit.
7/7 creates a balance between a function (the documentary) trying to get an objective point of view, and a vision (based on art), strongly subjective but entirely assumed.
Like the places, the men and women for whom nothing will ever be the same again, we suspect that 7/7 embodies a point of no return (artwork) for its creator.
Photos: Visa Pour l’Image. Perpignan. France. 2004. Maison Rouge. Paris. 2007.
The exhibition compromises:
Works:
97 prints: 40×50 cm
13 prints: 40×25 cm
all prints will be delivered in black wooden frames.
Past exhibitions of “7/7″:
Lectoure Festival. Lectoure. France. 2013.
Carré Baudoin, mois de la photo. Paris. 2012.
Past exhibitions of “2/7 Shkodra ”:
Foto España, Madrid. Spain. 2007.
Photo Month, Moscow. Russia. 2006.
Lianzhou International Photo Festival. China. 2005.
Centre Photographique d’Ile-de-France, Pontault-Combault. France. 2004.
Visa pour l’image 2004, Perpignan. France. 2004.
Past exhibitions of “3/7 Oswiecim ”:
Festival des Transphotographiques, Lille. France 2005
Past exhibitions of “4/7 Slavutich”:
Galerie Paul Frèches, Paris. France. 2008.
Past exhibitions of “5/7 Urakami ”:
Siverstein Gallery. New York.USA. 2008.
Maison rouge, Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Paris. France. 2007.
Photo month, Krakow. Poland. 2006.
Visa pour l’image, Perpignan. France. 2005.
Past exhibitions of “6/7 Urakami ”:
Ciudad Juarez, Galerie Paul Frèches, Paris. France. 2007.
Collections:
FNAC (fond National d’art contemporain, France)
La Maison Rouge, foundation Antoine de Galbert. France
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Exhibition costs available upon request.
Contact: Anna-Maria Pfab +44.7794.347.633
anna@instituteartist.com
