Vendredi 03 Août 2012 15:13:22 par actuphoto dans Expositions

Next October in Fira de Barcelona From the 5th to 9th October, the Visual Art Gallery at Sonimagfoto, the Image and Photo Fair, organised by Fira de Barcelona, will host the exhibition “Tauromaquia y pasiones” (“Bullfighting and Passions”) by the French photographer Lucien Clergue. This exhibition – which can be seen for the first time in Spain – consists of about thirty colour photos, which mix bullfighting images with classic works of art, as well as a biographical collage on Clergue: a passionate vision that transforms and gives new meaning to Clergue's work, thanks to the perfect fusion of scenes about life and death. The work of Lucien Clergue (Arles, 1934) has always oscillated between death, represented by photographs of bullfighting, and life, with images of nude female torsos. Now, Clergue is taking a risk and visiting museums with his old Minolta to photograph classic paintings overexposed on used films that contain scenes of bullrings or nudes. The result is unpredictable and, at the same time, spectacular. The exhibition “Tauromaquia y pasiones” that Clergue will show in Sonimagfoto will allow visitors to get to know the essence of the French maestro's work, influenced greatly by mythology, adventure and surrealism. The selection of images that Clergue is bringing to Barcelona starts in the bullfighting arena. Images of matadors; bulls with swords through them; picadors ready to strike with their rods; and bloodstained banderillas are featured in the particular vision of bullfighting by the photographer from Arles. Nonetheless, Clergue goes further and shows the spectator his new “passions”: scenes in which he overexposes bullfighting images in classic paintings, transmitting feelings of immortality. The exhibition closes with a large biographical collage, with which Clergue goes over his life linked to photography. Lucien Clergue discovered photography as an adolescent. His first images depicted the effects of World War Two bombings on his city. A friend of Picasso, who had a great influence on his early work, Clergue stood out with his late 50's series on Acrobats and Gypsies. In 1956, he met the avant-garde artist and writer Jean Cocteau, with whom he collaborated on various projects. His best known works are the nude female torsos on the beaches of Camargue and the bullfights in the arenas of Arles and Nimes, his favourites. In 1969, Clergue organised the Recontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles, one of the most important photography festivals in the world. His photographs have been exhibited all over the world.