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. (6 visuals)
- the world of advertising: she has created
campaigns for BNP, Thalys, etc.
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 (6 visuals)
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.
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 (6 visuals)
for ARTE, Canal +, Buggy, Boulanger.
Thanks to Maxon Computer
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 (6 visuals)
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
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
(6 visuals)
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.
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