PHOTO:Valérie Jouve

Valérie Jouve’s photographic and film work is rooted in the alchemy between bodies and space, humanity and the urban landscape. Titled “Bodies, Resisting”, this exhibition offers a substantial selection of works from the late 1980s up to the present day.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Jeu De Paume Archive

Valérie Jouve studied anthropology before enrolling at the National School of Photography in Arles. Now a photographer and filmmaker, she is part of that generation of French artists which has moved away from the great humanist tradition without completely rejecting its fundamental concerns. Her photographs and films draw as much on contemporary art and creative documentary as on anthropology and sociology. The classic subjects of landscape and portrait are brought together in a way that draws splendidly choreographed scenes out of the intensity of urban situations. The ambiguity and deliberate indeterminacy of her photographic compositions is underscored by her use of the designation Untitled. These open-ended bodies of images are added to by the artist over time, and each is identified by a generic subtitle in parentheses: Characters, Facades, Passers-by, The Street, Situations, Trees, and so on. The exhibition itinerary sets up a tension between these still images and a series of films looking at the city and its margins, ranging from Grand Littoral and Traversée to the artist’s new work, Blues. Created especially for the exhibition, Blues speaks to us of the abuse of power by countries and people. Jouve went to Guatemala to film and photograph changes to the landscape induced by the practices of those the local Indians call gringos. Comprising sequences of films, photographs, texts and sounds, the work revolves around Tania Carl, a French blues singer who has opted for living in Guatemala. In Valérie Jouve’s work urban and periurban spaces are built-up, leaving no room for earth. Some of her images are of implacably geometrical generic sites, while others show human beings on a human scale, as an active force within the city and a call to action.

Info: Bodies, Resisting, Jeu De Paume, 1 place de la Concorde, Paris, Curating: Valérie Jouve, Marta Gili and Pia Viewing, Duration: 2/6-27/9/15, Days & Hours: Tue: 11:00-21:00, Wed-Sun: 11:00-19:00, www.jeudepaume.org