As part of the 800th anniversary celebrations, a photography exhibition will be held from July 10 to October 10. Curated by renowned photographer CédricMATET, it will be held at the Jardin des Plantes. In 2020, this photographer also curated the exhibition “Behind the Masks,” whichfeatures200 portraits of medical personnel.

Practical Information

“People in Their Gardens”

The title of the exhibition is intrinsically linked to itscontent. In fact, for this occasion, the artist chose to work with anatomical specimens from the Faculty’s anatomy museum. To better understand his project, we interviewed the photographer.

What is your background?

I’m originally fromSète. I attended a design school in Montpellier that is now called ESMA. After that, I enrolled at the Gobelins School of Visual Arts in Paris. Later, I went back to school to earn a master’s degree in Urban Planning and Sustainable Development because I’m interested in cities. In the meantime, I’ve been working in art direction and design at various communications agencies.

What interests me is connecting art to the city, to maps, to cartography, and to people. In my view, an artist must be rooted in their context: urban, political, and human.

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

It was GéraldCHANQUES, a professor at the faculty and a doctor atSaint EloiHospital, who contacted me and proposed this project. I wanted to convey a vision ofwhat healthcare providers and their commitments can be. 

How would you describe yourself?

If I had to describe myself and my work, I would talk abouttransdisciplinarity. Indeed, I am a photographer, but I am also a visual artist; I enjoy working with various materials and collaborating with people from different fields.

Can you tell us about your new exhibition, “Man in His Garden”?

It’s been a long time since I first thought of focusing on the Jardin des Plantes, but I’ve always had a real passion for the anatomy museum I visited when I was a student. Being able to discuss botany through the garden, but also the human body and research on it—I think that’s fabulous. The project was developed by the two of us, once again with ProfessorCHANQUES.

This project is interesting becauseit pushes me out of my comfort zone;I usuallytake portraits, but that’s not the case here.
Moreover, since all the rooms are designated as heritage sites, I have a special relationship with the curator. She is the third subject of this project; I can’t work without her. Usually, I direct my model,but here I can’t because of the room’s fragility; every movement must be guided by the curator.
It’sinteresting becausethe room and the garden exist independently of me. 

There are three of us working on this project: Jane, who does digital art and is a videographer; Luc, who does motion design, among other things; and me, who works with visuals and handles the artistic direction for the whole project. None of us knows what the final result will be.

How did you choose the anatomical parts?

I first sought advice from ProfessorCHANQUES and the curators to find out which pieces are emblematic of the conservatory. I didn’t choose the pieces based on their aesthetic appeal, since the goal of this exhibition is to tell a story and convey meaning.
The only exception to this is a bust we found, whose identity, history, or era is unknown to anyone. I found it fragile and touching, so I decided to include it. It’s the only piece I chose based on a gut feeling.

Unfortunately, there were some pieceswe couldn’t include because they were too fragile. I was also drawn to other pieces, but they didn’t depict the human body and therefore strayed from the subject. I’ll address those later in another, more personal project.

Some pieces are also too heavy to move. However, this is part of the exhibition’s story.
For certain pieces that we couldn’t bring out to the Jardin des Plantes, we brought the Jardin to them by bringing branches and foliage.

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