Best off the wall on the gallery wall

Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire is happy to announce a new exhibition around the invitation of Anna Alix Koffi, chief editor of OFF the wall book-magazine.

This project comes from a desire to materialize the collaboration between Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire and the photography book-magazine OFF the wall over a summer exhibition. It will also be the opportunity to hold a group show on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the gallery and the last issues of the magazine. The ten editions of the review reveal a shared understanding and converging vision of images and authors.

Even if books lifetime exceeds the one of exhibitions, the eagerness to let images talk in present tense does remain. The show will not simply be about putting up the editorial choices of the magazine up on a wall, but rather to present a coherent and open selection of interconnected artworks, subject matters and forms. The two covers of each issue feature two photographs, one by an emerging photographer and the other by a renowned artist. This way, the gallery walls will become like pages, 3D covers showcasing and opening up a dialogue between two generations of photographers. Every photographer on view during the show will have been featured at least once in the magazine. Whether from an editorial or curatorial standpoint, our first and common passion is to draw parallel between diverse artistic approaches.
The main subjects emphasized in each issue -necessary to guide readers through the review- will be condensed on the gallery walls to reaffirm the commitment and artistic line the gallery defined twenty years ago. The scenography, thought like a “Best OF(F) the wall”, will echo the editorial choices of the magazine through gathering the work of about thirteen artists represent by the gallery in addition to one artistic discovery.

The ground floor will illustrate the last two issues, 9 and 10, of the magazine. Visitors will be greeted by Noémie Goudal’s architecture photographs and Paola de Pietri’s views of Istanbul. These open spaces will dialogue with the aerial compositions of Corinne Mercadier, themselves vibrating in contact with Katrien de Blauwer and Claudia Huidobro’s delicate collages. At the center, the trembling nudity of Antoine d’Agata’s dancer will connect the two spaces.
The first floor will celebrate the commitment of the gallery toward emerging artists through an original scenography made possible by the support of PICTO laboratories.
Samuel Gratacap’s and Laura Henno’s portraits and bodies suspended in time will reveal a sublimated yet harsh reality, that of migrants at the Tunisian border and on the Reunion Islands. The atmosphere will get tenser as visitors move along to Benjamin Mouly’s and Dorothée Smith’s works representing the encounter between forms and different states of being. Finally, Erwan Morere’s and Yusuf Sevincil’s visual density will cast a singular and contemporary light on the practice of black and white photography, with Erwan’s work getting closer to drawing and Yusuf’s to sooty scribbled calligraphy. The two artists share a profoundly yet contrasted humanist vision.

Clara Chichin will be Anna Alix Kofi’s guest of honor, an artistic discovery we will let visitors appreciate through her video.