“Lamu Red – Elie Chouraqui
He’s known as a director, producer, scriptwriter, sportsman and enthusiast. But this time, it’s through photography that Elie Chouraqui is back in the limelight, with the ” WE WERE WALLS ” exhibition at Galerie Caplain-Matignon.
Bringing together a dozen of the artist’s photographs, the exhibition We Were Walls is an ode to Africa, its history and its truth. The witness to this richness: the walls. An avid traveler, Elie Chouraqui is particularly fond of Africa and Kenya, and can’t resist “putting an eye in the lens” to capture these hidden emotions through subtle details that, when enlarged, give way to an entirely different landscape. Indeed, when photographing walls, Elie Chouraqui sets out to enlarge his shots in very large format, and the result is breathtaking. Standing in front of photographs that are both raw and intimate, the viewer feels surrounded by contemporary art paintings in warm, radiant colors.
A man with a sharp eye and extreme sensitivity, Elie Chouraqui is an observer of our times. With tenderness and modernity, he photographs the cement of a people, the witness of a daily life of a thousand colors. A profound work of which he shares a few lines with us:
“There I was on a scorching midday, the air so hot it twisted, people so hot they trembled, the light so bright, the animals so still and tetanized they couldn’t breathe, there I was on a street in an African village. […] “Where should my gaze, and then the lens of my camera, go to do justice to these human beings, my brothers, and really tell us who they are and how? How can I give a fair picture of this Africa that I love passionately as much as it irritates me? Magnificent, powerful young black men, laughing, sweating and screaming, one of whom shouted a joyful “Elie, toi!” at me, jostled me. […] To avoid them, I threw myself against a wall. I stood there for a long time, my hands resting on a warm material that reassured my body. The material of the wall. Before my eyes, my hands had seen. I photographed this wall. Then others. Then hundreds, thousands of others over the years, to bring you the unconscious of Africa. Its truth. The truth of millions of men and women who, over the millennia, by dint of layers, art and chance, have written their history on these walls. ”
We Were Walls exhibition – November 6 to 30, 2013
Galerie Caplain-Matignon – 29 avenue Matignon 75008 Paris – Tuesday to Saturday, 2.30 pm to 7 pm – http://www.galeriecaplain-matignon.com/
Opening on Tuesday, November 5 from 7pm.
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