The two-dimensional photographic image

The first floor of the Laurent Mueller gallery in Paris has been reconfigured for this occasion in an experimental work by two artists come together to present a shared reflection on constructing space with photographs.

Cyrille Weiner and Gregory Lacoua, photographer and designer respectively, have conceived and created a small room that reflects on spatial occupation via the experimental use of two-dimensional photographic images.

The “Twice” exhibition forms part of the “Code Inconnu” cycle and is curated by Marguerite Pilven. The title itself evokes a bijective relationship between two disciplines via a pragmatic and conceptual use of photographic-exhibition strategies in order to combine the contemplative photographic experience with an impressive exhibition-design experience. Visitors enter an immersive space in which the images delimit the room’s four surfaces. The two artists play with the intrinsically forceful images to reduce the four dimensions of space-time to the two dimensions of the “sensitive surface”. The composed and intimate dimension of the exhibition room favours the foray into the world of images, forging a direct relationship with visitors.

The reflection proposed by this installation centres on the different ways in which a photographic image can compose space. The photographic context, i.e. the environment where the image is presented is not unique but plural and formed of three levels of image presentation and diffusion. The images are hung on the wall and this is the first level. Although this gives the image the status of an artwork, the wall arrangement is unusual, allowing visitors interactively to relive the photographer’s experience in his personal search for the images.

Cyrille Weiner’s photographs are also printed in the book Twice, published by éditions 19/80 and presented with the exhibition. The book is the second level of dissemination of the image, as a 3D object participating in the creation of the exhibition space. The photographs are composed in two joined volumes that can be examined together or alternating the right and left parts. The effect of the duplicated viewing on the four book pages heightens the 3D effect, which gives rise to ever different visual relationships between the pictures inside. Leafing through the twin-book is a very personal experience for visitors-readers, a moment when then can follow Weiner’s photographic marches, exploring the continuous process of a changing contemporary scenario from the viewpoint of our human condition.

Finally – and this is the third level of representation – the photographs are contained in a “reproduction bench”. Specially designed for the exhibition, this is a wooden support into which are slotted three photographs by the French photographer, printed on glass. Just as the photographs re-produce the reality, this mechanism reproduces a definition of the image in which the visual signs of each photograph alternate/are superimposed on the creation of a uniform whole. In this way, the two artists interrogate a new dimension of the image, no longer centred on its surface but on the depth of its formative layers. Onlookers are invited to explore the material “depth” of the pictures. Featuring a reconstruction of fragments, Weiner’s work is condensed in a visual stratification that reconstructs a portrayal of the contemporary landscape.

The expressive desire behind this exhibition contains the same disquiet as German film-director Werner Herzog who, back in 1983, reflected on the need to renew our portrayal of the world presenting “pure, clean and transparent” images. Indeed, the very real transparency of Cyrille Weiner’s photographs rediscovers a new order in the contemporary landscape. The intrinsic message of this photographic stratagem enables us to reconstruct a new relationship with reality via the deposited traces and signs that bring artifice and nature together in a single harmonious presentation.

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Until 14 March 2015
Twice, Cyrille Weiner et Grégory Lacoua
Curated by Marguerite Pilven
Galerie Laurent Mueller
75 rue des Archives, Paris