Interview with photographer Cédric Matet for the "L'Humain dans son Jardin" exhibition

As part of the 800th anniversary celebrations, a photographic exhibition will run from July 10 to October 10. Produced by renowned photographer Cédric MATET, it will take place in the Jardin des Plantes. In 2020, this photographer also produced the "Derrière les masques" exhibition, featuring 200 portraits of medical staff.

Practical info

 

"The human in his garden

The title of the exhibition is fundamentally linked to its content. Indeed, for this occasion, the artist chose to work with anatomical specimens from the Faculty's anatomy conservatory. To better understand his project, we interviewed the photographer.

 

What's your background?

I'm originally from Sétois. I went to a design school in Montpellier, now called ESMA. After that, I joined the Gobelins school of image in Paris. Later, I went back to school to do a Master's degree in Urban Planning and Sustainable Development, because I'm interested in the city. In the meantime, I work as an art director and designer for a number of communications companies.

What interests me is linking art to the city, to plans, to cartography, to people. In my opinion, an artist must be at the heart of his or her context: urban, political, human.

 

Can you tell us about the "Behind the Masks" project?

I was approached by Gérald CHANQUES, a university professor and doctor at Hôpital Saint Eloi, who suggested this project. I wanted to transpose a vision of what caregivers and their commitments can be.

 

How would you define yourself?

If I have to define myself and my work, I'd say transdisciplinarity. I'm a photographer, but I'm also a visual artist, and I like to work with different materials and different trades.

 

Can you tell us about your new exhibition "L'humain dans son jardin"?

It's quite an old idea to treat the Jardin des Plantes, but I have a real passion for the anatomy museum that I saw when I was a student. To be able to talk about botany through the garden, but also about man and research on the body, I find fabulous. The project was set up by two people, once again with Professor CHANQUES.

This project is interesting because it takes me out of my comfort zone; usually I do portraits, but this is not the case.
What's more, given that all the pieces are classified as heritage, I have a special relationship with the curator. She's the third subject of this work; I can't work without her. Normally, I control my model, but in this case, given its fragility , I can't. Every move has to be made by the curator.
It's interesting because the room and the garden live outside me.

There are three of us working on this project: Jane, who does digital art and is a video artist, Luc, who does motion design among other things, and me, who does images and is in charge of the artistic direction of the whole thing. None of us knows what the result will be.

 

How did you choose the anatomical parts?

First of all, I sought the advice of Professor CHANQUES and the curators to find out which pieces are emblematic of the conservatory. I didn't choose the pieces on the basis of their aesthetics, because what we want to do with this exhibition is tell a story and give it meaning.
The only exception to this is a bust we found, whose identity, history or period nobody knows. I found it fragile and touching, so I chose to take it. It's the only piece I took by "feeling".

There were some pieces that we unfortunately couldn't take because of their fragility. I was also seduced by other pieces, but which didn't represent the human body, and which therefore distanced us from the subject. I'll deal with them later in a more personal project.

Some pieces are also too heavy to move around. However, this is part of the exhibition's story.
For some pieces that we couldn't take out to the Jardin des Plantes, we took the Garden to them, using branches and foliage.