Arno Brignon “Us”
- Exposition
Practical information
- Date et heure
- Location Galerie Le Château d'Eau
- Public Tout Public
Following this road trip, Arno Brignon he selected 60 colour and B&W photographs taken with out-of-date film, to create this exhibition.
A symbolic road trip about a post-democratic society, at a time when populism and technocracy seem to be at odds throughout the West. By observing this country, born of European settlers who drove out the natives, we are also observing ourselves, so strong are our ties, and so united are our states, for better or for worse. There is inevitably a touch of Robert Frank, Jack London and Wim Wenders in this journey, but beyond the initiatory, there is a desire to tell this country's story through the prism of reminiscences from my personal story, in which the question of absence lingers. A. Brignon
An American journey carried out in a unique way
Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin, Lisbon, London, Dublin, Brussels, Luxemburg, Rome, Athens, Paris, Madrid. Despite what this list of capital cities might suggest, Arno Brignon did not embark on a wide-ranging and jagged tour of Europe. Despite what this list of capital cities might suggest, Arno Brignon did not embark on a wide-ranging and jagged tour of Europe.
He is not the first to go on a road trip, echoing Robert Frank, Jack Kerouac and Wim Wenders – among others. Without doubt, this country, the United States of America, is the most photographed in the world. Firstly, by the Americans themselves, who elevated photography to the rank of a major art form in a country that had no major pictorial traditions at the time, and then by thousands of foreigners attracted by the immensity of the spaces, their diversity, the contrasting populations and the myth, skilfully constructed, of a nation intent on dominating the world. Arno Brignon set about this American journey in a singular way. Photography is a solitary craft par excellence, but to protect the cohesion of a family shaken by his repeated absences, he travelled with Caroline and Joséphine, his partner and daughter.
It’s not easy, especially when he questions his legitimacy and doesn’t always know whether he is in America on holiday or as a photographer. As he puts it so nicely: “I must learn to play with others”. In a country in which it is “difficult not to be caught up in the history of photography”, he has, by mixing black & white and colour, and by successfully combining family photographs and travel prints, created a tale that is as literary as it is cinematographic, a narrative that recounts an experience while fabricating a fictional America. Landscapes and portraits, encounters, roads and flashes of light sum up what is obviously not intended to be a portrait of the New World. Arno Brignon shares an intimate and subjective journey rooted in his own personal story, as well as an opportunity to forget the great American cities. In the end, “these inland cities, banal, intimate, fragile, threatened by emptiness and disappearance, are ultimately no more than a metaphor. The subject is not outside, but inside me. We are the subject.”
Christian Caujolle, Artistic advisor
Book
For the exhibition,
an eponymous book was published by Editions Lamaindonne
Size : 19 x 23,5 cm
128 pages
53 b&w and four-colour photographs
Paperback cover with flaps
Price : 22 euros
Arno Brignon was born in 1976 in Paris. He lives in Toulouse.
In 2010, after graduating from ETPA (School for Photography and Video Games – Gd Prix du Jury – Grand Jury Prize), he left his job as an educator in disadvantaged neighbourhoods to devote himself entirely to photography. His work combines teaching (photography workshops in Saint-Cyprien) and personal research through various residencies and creative support: L’oeil urbain, Art visuel en Couserans, Lectoure, Zone i, etc. His work combines teaching (photography workshops in Saint-Cyprien) and personal research through various residencies and creative support: L’oeil urbain, Art visuel en Couserans, Lectoure, Zone i, etc. His work has been exhibited in France (BNF – National Library of France, Le Château d’Eau, Photomed, Manifesto, Villa Tamaris, etc.) and abroad (Beirut, Athens, Guernsey, Rabat). He joined Signatures, Maison de photographes in 2013.
Exhibitions
- 2024 Exhibition “Us”, Galerie Le Château d’Eau
- 2022 Exhibition « Ici » , Festival Manifesto – Toulouse
- 2021 Residence and Exhibition « La mémoire des lieux» – 2 angles, Flers
- 2021 Residence and Exhibition « Les Doutes » – Zone i, Thoré la Rochette
- 2019 Exhibition « La Formation des Vagues » – FIFV, Valparaiso – Chile
- 2018 Residence and Exhibition « Dans les murs »- Centre d’art et de photographie de Lectoure
- 2017 Exhibition “Free Doors to Spain: Ceuta”, Fotolimo, Portbou – Spain
- 2016 Exhibition “Based on a true story”, Espace St Cyprien, Toulouse
- 2016 Exhibition “Free Doors to Spain: Gibraltar”, Institut Français, Beirut, Lebanon
- 2014 Exhibition “Joséphine”, Guernesay Photo Festival, UK
- 2014 Residence and Exhibition “Ancrages”, Festival de l’Oeil Urbain, Corbeil Essonnes
- 2013 Exhibition “Joséphine”, Le Château d’Eau Toulouse
- 2010 Exhibition “31 sans”, Bourse du Talent (Grant for Talent), Bibliothèque Nationale de France (National Library of France), Paris