Virgile Simon Bertrand
ArtisTree 1/F Cornwall House, TaiKoo Place, Island East Hong Kong Chine
From 21 October until 18 November 2009, a retrospective of the photographic works of Virgile Simon Bertrand from the last ten years will be exhibited at ArtisTree, Swire Properties’ purpose built art space at Island East.
Supported by Swire Island East, the exhibition is curated by Davina Lee and organized in collaboration with Diorama Projects. PROXEMICS considers the unspoken rules of human relationships and the relationship between people and the space around them. ‘Proxemics’, a term coined by the anthropologist Edward T. Hall identifies four distinct zones that mark our relationships with others. The exhibition examines the authority of space and spatial awareness through vision and sound using the music of James Devane and Christopher Knight.
Bertrand’s portraits and architectural photographs show how differently people behave within these invisible zones, depending on their relationship to the person next to them or to the space around them. A specially designed installation will display over 80 of Bertrand’s photographs of people and places featuring iconic images of some of Asia’s most prominent personalities including artists, writers, designers, businessmen and architects, including lyricist Lin Xi, director Zhang Yimou and one of Hong Kong’s best loved actresses, Siu Fong Fong.
The photographs will be offered for sale after the exhibition, with net proceeds to be donated to Medecins Sans Frontieres.
About Virgile Simon Bertrand
Virgile Simon Bertrand is a French photographer who has been based in Asia since the late 1990s. Bertrand studied Applied Arts at the prestigious Ecole Boulle (1988 - 1991, Paris), Graphic Design at Ecole Duperré (1992 – 1993, Paris) and Photography at the Ecole Nationale de la Photographie (1993, Arles). Bertrand began his career assisting Magnum photographer Abbas and working as a photographer for the Opéra National de Paris. In 2004 Bertrand was awarded the Foreign Correspondents' Club Hong Kong Photograph of the Year for his portrait of Cardinal Zen and was a finalist in the ‘Best Commissioned Portrait’ category for the 2009 AOP Awards. His work has been exhibited in Taipei, Hong Kong, Paris, Arles and in London in the 2008 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery. Bertrand has also been selected as one of ten finalists in the Architectural Category of the 2009 Hasselblad Masters Competition.
About Swire Island East
Swire Island East is one of Hong Kong’s best planned and established business districts which comprise the retail and office centres of Cityplaza and TaiKoo Place, developed and managed by Swire Properties. Following the completion of One Island East, the Island East portfolio offers 8 million sq ft of commercial accommodation for local and multinational corporations. A comprehensive range of cosmopolitan business and leisure amenities are situated within the area, including the 1.1 million sq ft Cityplaza shopping centre, the Butterfield’s private members’ club, over 60 restaurants and cafes and some 4,000 public parking spaces.
Swire Island East has been a long-time patron of art and culture and a diversified range of visual and performing art events are held year-round in the past decade. To raise the bar and be able to bring world-class art events to Hong Kong, a 20,000 sq ft multi-purpose venue ArtisTree located at Cornwall House, TaiKoo Place was launched in November 2008. The inaugural event was the Vivienne Westwood A Life in Fashion exhibition, a collaboration with London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.
ArtisTree is a pun for the original word “Artistry” which means “artistic workmanship, effect or quality, artistic ability”. Like a tree, this new venue symbolises a nurturing ground where art grows. It is intended to be a cultural resource for Hong Kong through which to inspire the learning, appreciation, creation and growth of art in the wider Hong Kong community through the presentation of outstanding events from the world of visual and performing arts.
About Diorama Projects
Diorama Projects was established in 2008 by Davina Lee. Diorama Projects is the exhibition division of Words For Pictures Limited and seeks to identify, develop