“At a distance of a photojournalism which favors the decisive moment and images shock, Olivia Gay continues the long and patient quest for a look. Next on the work in all its forms – whether it is insane or rédimé – and on women, which it narrates the meeting each time singular, and which she paints the portrait subjectivé in the form of this “envisagement” dear to the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. They are prostitutes, lacemakers, cashiers, labor, models, Citadines, nuns, detained, refugees, each is thus part of a community of women who “resistant”, in spite of everything. Resistant: thus will the women of Olivia Gay. For as much, not of feminism at the Simone de Beauvoir: the artist puts rather in before the concepts of “discretion”, “home” and “Contemplation”, thus leading a search of individuation. The pictorial model irrigates these subtle portraits and “pardoned”, which testify to an immersion at each time renewed in specific worlds, and what this could appoint a spirituality of the face.
“Dominique Baqué historian and art critic
LA MEP
Maison Européenne de la Photographie
5/7 rue de Fourcy, 75004 Paris 01 44 78 75 00 – www.mep-fr.org
M° Saint-Paul (ligne 1) ou Pont Marie (ligne 7)
Ouvert du mercredi au dimanche de 11h à 20h
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