As part of the 800th anniversary celebrations, a photography exhibition will be held from July 10 to October 10. Created by renowned photographer CédricMATET, it will be held at the Jardin des Plantes. In 2020, this photographer also created the exhibition "Derrière les masques" (Behind the Masks), whichfeatures200 portraits of medical staff.

Practical information

 

"Humans in their gardens"

The title of the exhibition is fundamentally linked to itscontent. 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 is your background?

I am originally fromSète. I attended a design school in Montpellier, which is now called ESMA. After that, I enrolled at the Gobelins school of visual arts in Paris. Later, I went back to school to get a master's degree in Urban Planning and Sustainable Development because I'm interested in cities. In the meantime, I worked as an art director and designer for communications agencies.

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 their context: urban, political, human.

 

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

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

 

How would you describe yourself?

If I had to define myself and my work, I would talk abouttransdisciplinarity. I am a photographer, but I am also a visual artist. I enjoy working with different materials and different trades.

 

Can you tell us about your new exhibition, "Humans in Their Gardens"?

It's been a long time since I first had the idea of working with the Jardin des Plantes, but I have a real passion for the anatomy museum, which I visited when I was a student. I think it's fabulous to be able to talk about botany through the garden, but also about humans and research on the body. The project was put together by two people, once again with ProfessorCHANQUES.

This project is interesting becauseit takes me out of my comfort zone.I usuallydo portraits, but that's not the case here.
What's more, since all the pieces are classified as heritage items, I have a special relationship with the curator. She is the third subject of this work; I cannot work without her. Usually, I control my model,but here I can't because of its fragility. Every movement has to be made by the curator.
It'sinteresting becausethe piece and the garden exist outside 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 does imaging and is in charge of the artistic direction for the whole thing. None of us knows what the end result will be.

 

How did you choose the anatomical parts?

I first sought advice from ProfessorCHANQUES and the curators to find out which pieces were emblematic of the conservatory. I did not choose the pieces based on their aesthetic qualities, since the aim of this exhibition is to tell a story and give meaning.
The only exception to this is a bust we found, whose identity, history, and era are unknown. I found it fragile and touching, so I chose to include it. It's the only piece I chose based on gut feeling.

Unfortunately, there were some pieces thatwe couldn't include because they were too fragile. I was also attracted to other pieces, but they did not represent the human body and therefore took us away from the subject. I will deal with them later for another, more personal project.

Some pieces are also too difficult to move due to their weight. However, this is part of the exhibition's story.
For some pieces that could not be taken out to the Jardin des Plantes, we brought the Jardin to them by taking branches and foliage.