Russian Fashion Models Gallery

Press file – september 2005 IN PARIS • Galeries Lafayette’s Gallery 3 - 12 novembre 2005 • Biche de Bere Gallery 17 - 20 novembre 2005 IN SHANGAÏ • Duolun Museum. Museum of Modern Art 7 - 28 octobre 2005 First annual professional digital photography show Christophe Luxereau and Frédéric Pauly have created the project to allow photographers express their personal vision of beauty. Each of the six professional photographers are invited to exhibit their artworks at the Galeries Lafayette gallery and at the Biche de Bere gallery, who for the occasion will show a series created on the theme of beauty. This transversal event will involve the areas of fashion, photography and contemporary art during the Paris Photo fair in November 2005. PHOTOGRAPHS Caroline Delmotte / Catherine Louis / Christophe Luxereau /Zhenya Minkovich / François Rousseau / Yethy ORGANISATIONS : Christophe Luxereau / Frédéric Pauly / Aude de Bourbon / Fred Prod / numeriscausa PLACES GALERIES LAFAYETTE'S GALLERY Principal Store, 1st floor, “Espace Créateur” 40, boulevard Haussmann / 75009 Paris BICHE DE BERE GALLERY 4 passage St Avoye on 8 rue Rambuteau / 75003 Paris SHANGHAI DUOLUN MUSEUM 2A Gaolan Rd / 200020 Shanghai PRESS CONTACTS Aude de Bourbon : presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr FIRST ANNUAL PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW The group Beauty By and Numeriscausa present: Beauty By being the first annual professional digital photography show. The international premier will be held at the Galeries Lafayette Gallery in Paris from the 3rd to the 12th November 2005 and at the Biche de Bere Gallery from the 17th to the 20th November 2005. This international annual event aims to explore all the technical and artistic possibilities of digital photography around a central theme. The choice of a common theme - beauty - which entitles each artist to develop his own vision around the concept in relation to aesthetics and produce a specific series of works. Beauty By 2005, without meaning to be exhaustive, presents six variations around digital photography. Six professional photographers: Caroline Delmotte /Catherine Louis/Christophe Luxereau/Zhenya Minkovich/François Rousseau and Yethy will express through six series of prints produced for this occasion their vision of beauty in this digital age. DIGITAL "Every new technology implies a new art form" Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray Since the beginning of the 90s digital technology has become an integral part of our daily lives as well as the arts. Amateur photographers have abandoned traditional cameras in favor of the freedom and ease of use offered by digital technology. More and more fashion photographers are using digital cameras for their technical possibilities: viewing the shot in real time, easy retouching, computer assisted editing of the final image and lower production costs. They are becoming increasingly familiar with these tools and are creating a new aesthetic language. This change of attitude, which affects all the arts, from cinema to music as well as live entertainment, has led to a transformation of artistic performances. The Virtual world is now so much a part of the Real world that the borders between the two are completely blurred. presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr BEAUTY With today's digital photography and postproduction techniques, our notion of beauty has been challenged and our references have completely changed. The theme chosen for this first encounter allows the artists to express their own personal definition on contemporary beauty. BeautyBy, beauty according to Caroline Delmotte / Catherine Louis / Christophe Luxereau / Zhenya Minkovich / François Rousseau and by Yethy. Each artist, whether working in fashion, beauty or advertising expresses his or her point of view on the images conveyed by the cosmetic industries and the media. They have adapted these images in order to forge their own aesthetic language without, however, reaching a consensus. The exhibit therefore highlights the evolution of aesthetics and the emergence of new codes. The artists question the present in order to talk about the future. Are we headed towards a standard uniform of beauty, a sort of calibrated aesthetics imposed to us by the leading brands, or are we heading, instead, towards a form of unification? Are we inevitably headed towards a sophisticated body as witnessed by the use of plastic surgery and, perhaps in a different way, by the trends in Body Art? This is just one example of the many questions confronted by the series of artworks in the show. TRANSVERSALITY Through the choice of theme and artists, this exhibition blithely disregards all borders between the Real and the Virtual as well as the different mediums. It ranges from the fine arts to fashion while touching on graphic design, which is one of the inherent characteristics of digital photography. Through the diversity of the selected works, the exhibit proposes a definition of digital aesthetics around the theme of beauty and tries to initiate a conceptualization of this type of artwork. presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr THE ARTISTS presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr CAROLINE DEL MOTTE For Caroline Delmotte, photographic beauty is a mixture of surprise and mystery. She leaves the viewer free to imagine a story around what they see. For Beauty By, sophisticated and feminine women pose in a half-futuristic, half-retro, (in either case artificial), environment. A quilted material covered with metallic flowers serves as a common backdrop and groups the models together in the same world. But which one? Nothing can explain their attitudes. Are they primping in front of a mirror? They seem to be using their charms to cast a spell on themselves. Before a shooting, Caroline makes a drawing, a habit that started in childhood and that she perfected in art school. It’s a way for her to clarify her ideas before they take on their virtual form as a computer file. The ensuing work is a team effort with the help of a make-up artist, a hairdresser and a professional touch up. Caroline Delmotte navigates between three worlds: - the world of art: she did her studies at the «Rue Blanche» art school specializing in decorative arts at the «Arts Décoratifs de Paris». Her interest in decoration is present in her series for BeautyBy in which female models evolve in the same universe with the same backdrop. - the world of fashion: she does fashion photo shoots abroad around the world. - the world of advertising: she has created campaigns for BNP, Thalys, etc. (6 visuals) presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr CATH ERINE L OUIS “Beauty is to be found in curves, essentially feminine curves. In a sensual naked body that reveals itself while remaining shrouded in mystery. Its a combat against vulgarity.” Catherine Louis creates a close relationship with her models in order to reveal their beauty in a free yet intimate way. She started working on her series for Beauty By a year ago. The first work is composed of a crouching red body. Fluid lines echoing sensual curves. The body becomes an abstract composition. The series is a variation on this initial creation, a sort of secret and sensual quest for perfection. Catherine Louis comes from a family with a passionate interest in photography. She started taking pictures at the age of 15. She wanted to be a ballet dancer but a knee problem put an end to her dream. She turned to photography and did a series of portraits of miners from her hometown at St. Etienne. In Paris she worked as an assistant to photographers in fashion, beauty and decoration while working at the same time on her personal projects. After 7 years experience in the field and having used all of the photographic techniques she decided to concentrate on her own work. She has done advertising campaigns for Guerlain, La Roche-Posay, etc. She also works for magazines like Elle, Madame Figaro, View on Color, etc. (6 visuals) presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr CHRISTOPHE L UXE RE AU After studying painting at the art school (Ecole des Beaux-Arts) and architecture (civilengineering), he started as a photographer in 1986. In 1995 Christophe Luxereau started editing his images on a computer and working on the relationship between man and the electronic machine. This relationship has led to new codes, new behaviours and new icons. The artist finds inspiration in animation (Goldorak, Time Masters) in science-fiction movies (Blade Runner, Forbidden Planet)or in the aesthetic universe of David Cronenberg. Familiar with the world of fashion, he creates various adaptations of the language of Glamour. His work is about the artificial nature of beauty conveyed by advertising. For Beauty By, two women shadow each other while revealing their differences. The first is the child-woman, carrying her doll, natural and yet sullen. She interacts wit a second woman,sophisticated and passive, transforming her according to her fantasies. He has shown his work at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 2000, at the Mep in 2001 and 2002. The same year he also participated in the show “Le corps recomposé” at the Cité des Sciences de la Villette in Paris. In 2003 he participated in the exhibit “Avatars” at the Galerie Lafayette gallery, FIAC and Paris Photo (Rabouen Moussion gallery). A retrospective was presented at the Cube in Issy-les-Moulineaux in 2004. He also works as advertising Photographer for ARTE, Canal +, Buggy, Boulanger. Thanks to Maxon Computer (6 visuals) presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr ZHE NYA MINKOVIC H For Zhenya, the Russian nesting doll represents the classic notion of beauty that all women aspire to when they dress or wear make-up. It is the standard of beauty for all young Russian women. For Beauty By, she has associated this symbolic object with the female nude. Her photographs deal with the theme of self-discovery in a brightly colored fairy-tale world. The doll-woman learns to like her body, to appreciate her own beauty and to enjoy life. “After living in St. Petersburg, Vienna, Rome, San Francisco, Paris and London, I’ve come back to Paris. In all of my works, whether they are about beauty, fashion, portraits or architecture, I keep looking for, subconsciously, a balance between my need for structure that comes from my former work as an engineer and a sort of ecstasy that comes from my love of life and my sense of humour. There is always some humorous element in my work, either hidden or explicit. It’s something I just can’t live without.” (6 visuals) presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr FRANÇ OIS ROUSSE AU What differentiates a photograph to become a work of art? At the Acturial exhibition in 2005, François Rousseau thought of this question when his work was shown alongside Roma Olpaka's photographs, whom he admires greatly. The two triptychs that he presents for Beauty By provide a subjective answer to this question. It consists of a photograph of the shooting itself, the photograph as a finished product and a photograph shown to the public either on the cover of a magazine or in an art gallery. His work is an illustration through an image that forces the viewer to question his role as critical judge and confront the idea put forward by Marcel Duchamp that an object only becomes a work of art when its creator claims that it is one. François Rousseau started his career as a photographer in 1995 after 10 years as a painter. In 1996 a lot of Parisian magazines started commissioning his photographs. At the moment he is alternating between fashion photography, artistic photography and photographs associating fashion, sports and urban scenes (boxers, baseball and football players, rappers, surfers and athletes). In 2002, he received the Villa Medicis prize. In 2003, he was asked to do a calendar of French rugby players “Les dieux du stade 2004” which sold 160 000 copies. In the summer of 2004 he worked on 2 books and a project in Rio de Janeiro. He has also done photographs campaigns for Bouyges Telecom, Air France, American Express, Ikea, Pink TV, etc. Thanks to (6 visuals) presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr YE TH Y Yethy refuses to give a definition of beauty; it’s a subjective question. For him, beauty goes beyond aesthetics: it is something that produces particular sensations. In his photographs, the models reveal their personality through their postures and their environment. For Beauty By, he has submitted six simple portraits. The models offer themselves to the viewer, nude and bathed in a crystal clear light. There are three men and three women because Yethy does not adopt the female ideal of beauty presented by the media. They are blond, dark, white, black or mixed race. The artist refuses to set one criteria for beauty; he doesn’t have one anyway. He evokes the mixing of styles, skin colours, cultures and above all authenticity. Yethy is self-taught. His mother was an interior decorator. At 14, he started working on different projects and then designed furniture. He then earned a master’s degree in imagery and digital photography while working as an assistant to photographers and artists. He also worked with a chief cameraman on short films and advertising campaigns. He has helped organize exhibits and published portraits in different magazines (Têtu, Balcony, Max, Double, etc. “But not glamour shots only natural photographs”) He likes to work in a team in order to benefit from the talent and creativity of others. (6 visuals) presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr Christophe Luxereau : Curator Aude de Bourbon : Associate curator and responsible for communication Frédéric Pauly : Associate curator and in charge of the production Fred Prod Numeriscausa is a production company that organizes digital art exhibitions. Its aim is to confront contemporary art works in order to break away from the current babbling about and fascination with these artworks merely based on their technological or revolutionary character. The stakes are double: increase the diffusion of these artworks and convince the public of the maturity of digital art. Numeriscausa aims to help artists produce their artworks and diffuse them on the contemporary art market in France and internationally. GALERIES LAFAYETTE GALLERY Galeries Lafayette's gallery innovates in the art world by offering its clients a permanent exhibition hall : “La Galerie des Galeries Lafayette”. An exhibition hall and meeting place, la Galeries Lafayette gallery, has rightfully taken its place among the major internationally known department stores. It offers to a wide audience privileged access to art and design in all its forms. Accessible from the Haussmann store and from the famous dome which is a historic monument, Galeries Lafayette's gallery benefits from the local and international notoriety of a major department store visited by 80,000 to 100,000 people a day. Equipped with all the appropriate exhibition materials and adapted to all media, the «Galeries Lafayette's gallery» is able to show all the facets of artistic creation: architecture, interior design, fine arts, cinema, design, literature, fashion and photography. BICHE DE BERE GALLERY The Biche de Bere company installed a showroom in Paris, in the heart of the Marais next to the Beaubourg museum. It is the place where Biche de Bere is best represented, where various collections are permanently exposed and where all the brand’s events take place. This loft is about 500 m2, built around an exceptional canopy gathering all the needed qualities to exhibit works of art and to accommodate a large amount of visitors for these events. Nelly Biche de Bere entrusted her Parisian showroom to numeriscausa for a cycle of exhibitions during the season 2004-2005. presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr PRATICAL INFORMATION PLACES : GALERIES LAFAYETTE’S GALLERY 1st étage, "Espace Créateurs" 40, bd Haussmann / 75009 Paris from 3 to 12 novembre 2005 BICHE DE BERE GALLERY 4, passage St Avoye au niveau du 8, rue Rambuteau / 75003 Paris from 17 to 20 novembre 2005 CONTACTS Aude de Bourbon presse@Beauty By.fr 06 14 62 14 48 http://www.Beauty By.fr presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr PARTNERSHIPS The Beauty By team thanks for their contribution and theit help : Thierry Spencer, Witaz.com, Nicolas Beucher, Françoise Chaze. presse@Beauty By.fr / www.Beauty By.fr