Gilles Magnin Paris Berlin "intime-extime", exposition at Lagny Town Hall

The photographer Gilles Magnin is one of my neighbors here at the Marcheoise. This Summer, the Town of Lagny hosted an exposition of his photographs from June 8th until August 31st. During the last few days of the exposition, Magnin gave a series of commentated visits of the exposition, explaining his artistic process and the references he was using in order to convey meaning I attended the last of these visits and had a chance to discuss this exposition with the artist.

The main theme as Magnin explains it on his own blog (text in French) is a sort of mirroring of each place through impression, rather than objective views of defined subjects. The object as a definition of value figures highly in this collection of images, as does the device of how the observers defines value through his examination of objects and details.

I felt that the most powerful images were those which did not attempt to overly define the themes suggested, but which allowed the viewer to question his own perception of the images and their juxtaposition with the rest of the exposition. The direct dialogue with the artist himself was an interesting way to follow his own artistic process and gave me some ideas of how to use these ideas in my own.

It is a pity that this type of philosophical exchange is so rare here, especially given the population of artists involved...