JEREMIE LENOIR ZEROPOLIS

GALERIE RIVIERE / FAIVELEY

JEREMIE LENOIR ZEROPOLIS

As the product of political and economic processes, the contemporary landscape has evolved today to disappear into its own constraints. The «third landscape» or «non-places» of Marc Augé are nowadays multiplying on a large scale, while satu-rated urban peripheries are compartmentalized in impersonal and dehumanized architecture. “When a landscape lost its consistency, it makes sense for the photographer only as a landscape which lost its consistency”, Alain Buttard said. The winner of numerous international prizes and award spon-sorships, my diverse works propose to question the political, economic and cultural relations at work between men and landscapes.

Gathering photographs from several projects realized between 2010 and 2013 on very small parts of the French territory, «BORDERS» is studying the urban /rural frontier. These places of tensions, these zones «at the periphery» reveal our landscapes evolu-tion and question, through them, the identity of the society we are currently building. At the heart of vernacular spaces, my photographic studies at-tempt to renew the assumptions issued by the Da-tar and the American geographer John B. Jackson in the 80s. The photographic shots that compose them have no particular intent to deliver an objec-tive representation of the «truth» of a landscape. By composing an ontological distancing, aerial pers-

In a second phase, the combination of aerial pers-pective and abstraction permits an investigation on the ability of our contemporary territories to deli-ver any form of intelligibility. What are we looking at? What are we doing? What are we building? The selection of places and their pictural representa-tion refer to the fascinated contemplation of chaos while also providing, in their rendering, an attempt of reconciliation with a landscape possibility. Deni-grated as «places», the spaces transform itself into objects that carry social commitment and reveal, as in Holger Trülzsch’s works, a «matrix» of our univer-salized identities and societies.

Thus, between the necessity of capturing the reality and its transfiguration into paintings, my pictures are attempting to give a new realism to our contempo-rary territories.

pective is used as a tool and not as a goal, allowing, through a very strong pictorial bias, a liberation from the codes of the discipline. Falling within the seriality, my photographs make sense without indi-viduality, but thanks to the respect of a meticulous selection of scenes, a precise shooting protocol and deliberated disorienting picture framings. Abs-traction, flatness and neutrality are here claimed as interfaces between content and form of the sub-jects, minutely building what Barthes referred to as «thought photographs.»

The transfiguration of the landscape embodied in abstract painting leads one firstly to question the photographic medium in its capacity to recreate reality. The introduction of real confusion between photography and painting invites the spectators to share a unique and sensitive point of view on the landscapes. With the removal of major elements (sky, horizon or any identifiable infrastructures), we are lost in an unreal universe which we are no longer able to mentally recover from our familiar view-point. Therefore, the only remains of reality are ra-dical geometries or indecisive textures, totalitarian lines or confusing borders. To exit the imaginary dialectic of forms and colors, we must decipher the image to accede to the comprehension of a world that we know to be real, but we are not able to im-mediately accept.

ARTIST STATMENT (BORDERS PROJECT)JEREMIE LENOIR

More than a selection of images, my projects are organized around a specific selection of places. By choosing to travel by planes rather than by heli-copters, it is financially possible to achieve a large number of flights over each space (at least fifteen) during the course of a full year. Each flight is then used to retake photographs, to refine the position of the frames sometimes by only few millimeters, and so gradually reshape the landscape as one would making sketches or drawings. In this way, the «BORDERS» project has been approached more in the manner of a painter than a photographer, with the strong will that the aerial perspective remains a mere tool, but also to allow me to express my pictorial influences from painting. This approach has permitted a genuine exhaustion of the selected spaces : following their progresses through the sea-sons helps me to see them as obvious and abstract subjects.

As part of this continuity, all the images are re-corded at the same altitude of 1500 feet, that is to say, about 450 meters from the scene. After the definition of the specific geographical area, fixing this altitude is the first element of my shooting protocol. I then always use the same fixed optics to enable consistency and accuracy in the treatment of the scale between each photograph. Experience has also shown that at a lower altitude the details

identified themselves too quickly, and that at a higher altitude the relationship to the human scale was lost.

The third data protocol is the time of shooting which contributes, like altitude, to obtain a rigorous and coherent set of images. Thus, all the photogra-phs were taken around noon, when the sun is at its zenith and the light can not be aesthetically used. It is at this time of day that the colorimetry obtained is the most neutral, the light of the sun at this time crushes all relief, all shadows, all colors. In this way, images have a very flat render, in the style of the Bechers or Stéphane Couturier for example, who worked with overcast skies. This flatness enables the emphasis of the photographed space common feature and highlights its meaning rather than its representation. Finally, all these parameters are reinforced by the choice of a direct printing technique on a raw material, that emphasizes the essential relationship in the photographs to the matters and textures.

Gallery prints are 120x120cm and 80x80cmEdition of 5

Nothing added, nothing removed, no Photoshop

PROTOCOLJEREMIE LENOIR

Resources :

> http://www.jeremielenoir.com

> Watch «MARGES» film (french)

> See PDF of large scale installations (french)

Born in France in 1983, I oriented myself first to sciences, mathematics and computing, before studying art and photography. After a master de-gree in information technology, I joined the ESAD, Orléans’s art school, where I succeeded a master degree in arts and communication in june 2009.

Without attempt to an objective reproduction of a «true» landscape, my photographs offer a sen-sitive travel through what Marc Augé called «non places».

Deeply inspired by Dusseldorf Kunstakademie ar-tists and abstract expressionist painters, my work tries both a representation of reality and its trans-figuration into “paintings”. Winner of “Mécène et Loire”, “AME” and “SCAM” awards, my studies question the political, economic and cultural rela-tions between men and landscapes, and thus show the slow globalization of our world and civilization.

SOLO SHOWS (selection)2014 – Art Up, Vinci booth, Lille2013 – Galerie Rivière Faiveley, Paris 2013 – Château de Tours 2013 – Collégiale St Pierre le Puellier, Orléans 2013 – Loire Valley gallery, Saumur 2012 – Annexe, St Avertin2012 – Galerie Chipchop, Paris2011 – Installation dans le Forum du Quai, Angers2011 – Pont de Pruniers, Bouchemaine2011 – Nicole Villeneuve Gallery, Chicago, US2010 – Les Douches La Galerie, Paris

GROUP SHOWS (selection)2014 – WPO digital exhibition, Somerset House, London2013 – Haute Ecole des Art du Rhin, Mulhouse 2013 – Somerset House, London2012 – Festival Chapitre Nature, Le Blanc2012 – Emergent Artists Award, Dubaï2012 – Galerie Projective City, Paris2012 – Générale Chipchop, Espace Cadain, Paris2012 – FIIE, hotel Pullman Montparnasse, Paris2011 – Galerie Projective City, Paris2011 – Salon d’art contemporain de Montrouge2010 – Noorderlicht Festival, Leeuwarden, Netherlands2010 – FIIE, Canal de la Villette, Paris 2008 – Piaggio Museum, Pontedera, Italy 2008 – Muséum d’Orléans

BOOKS2011 – «Transfigurations», Filigranes2009 – «Territoires occupés», LME

AWARDS & RESIDENCIES2014 – WPO shortlist Landscape category2014 – Vinci selection, Lille Art Up2013 – Archifoto selection2012 – 18th A.M.E. award winner2012 – 1er book price, Chapitre Nature2012 – Top 5 Emergent Artists Award2010 – Mécène et Loire award winner2010 – Brouillon d’un rêve, SCAM award winner2010 – DRAC Centre, Kuala Lumpur artist residency2010 – Centre, Kuala Lumpur artist residency2010 – Committed work, Sony WSOP2010 – Nikon France selection

PUBLICATIONS (selection)03/2012 – Chasseur d’images12/2011 – Le Figaro11/2011 – Connaissance des arts05/2011 – Géo « Grand Reporter »05/2011 – Catalogue 56ème salon de Montrouge09/2010 – Catalogue «Land», Noorderlicht festival07/2010 – Le Monde HS03/2010 – IMAGES Magazine

BIOGRAPHYJEREMIE LENOIR

La Galerie Rivière / Faiveley est spécialisée en photographie émergente.

Notre programmation essaye de rendre compte du foisonnement du traitement de l’image aujourd’hui : avec une majorité de photographies plasticiennes, nous exposons aussi des installations, vidéos et col-lages photographiques.Nos artistes ont en commun de vouloir défier les limites du médium photographique, d’interroger les représentations traditionnelles et l’objectivité du regard.Dans une volonté d’échange et de découverte, nous organisons régulièrement, en plus des exposions, des rencontres avec des photographes, signatures de livres et des masterclasses.

The Rivière Faiveley Gallery is specialised in emerging photographyOur programming is a way to try to illustrate the image processing abundance nowadays: with a majority of conceptual artists, we also feature installations, videos and photographic collages.With a will of exchange and discovery, we regularly organize encounters with photographers, books sign-ings and masterclasses.

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Galerie RIVIERE / FAIVELEY70 rue Notre Dame de Nazareth75003 Paris

www.galerierivierefaiveley.com