F&D Cartier
contemporary experimental photography
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F&D Cartier Françoise et Daniel Cartier Via unique one off creations of photo-based woks in constant transformation, we question the sense of the image, memory and lost, Time. We experimentally probe the essence of photography, its fundamentals, light, photosensitive materials, the turning point of analogue photography to digital >post-digital photography.
Minimalist experiments and performance, found objects, work without a camera, darkroom or chemicals > Wait and See, 1998 – Today : on-going research, in-situ installations of expired photosensitive materials exposed directly to the light of the exhibition spaces, luminograms left in perpetual transformation, left unfixed. The shared experience engages the audience to face reality instead of looking at a picture, invites them to be patient, and the history of photography is retraced, echoing subjectively the historical and artistic collateral events of the 19th and 20th centuries, by selecting for each iteration of our installations expired photographic materials (1870-1990), from various sources (900 different ones), depending on the singular situation of each exhibition space, in particular its history, topography, location, …

JOURNéES PHOTOGRAHIQUES BIENNE 2024 COMMONPLACES

In a world in which the paradigm of vision is now the screen, our 27th edition, under the title “Commonplaces,” will present Swiss and international photographic perspectives that make visible the phenomena that are having an impact on our environment and daily life, or even transforming them, but which may not come under our gaze that is now so distracted and sometimes blinded. 

The photography stroll that we invite you to take is made up of 11 venues in the city, starting this year at the Residenz au Lac, where artist-in-residence Rebecca Bowring worked for several months with six women aged 75 to 96 living at this medical-social establishment in Biel/Bienne. Together they made photography and writing integral parts of their daily lives as means of expression that are both enduring and fragile, and lie at the intersection of personal and shared memories. Their creations are being shown in two parts, at the Residenz au Lac and at the Photoforum. You can learn more about this beautiful intergenerational collaboration from the video short by Malitokino. Across from the station, you will find a project that joins images from the past with new technologies: My name is Fuzzy aka Bastien Bron will present with Nebia the exhibition COLLECTOR as well as a concert performance. Nebia is not only a new exhibition venue this year, but will also be one of the festival’s ticket vending locations, and will offer light meals. 

On entering the Photoforum, you’ll see the second part of Rebecca Bowring’s collaborative work. Then Inès Mermoud’s meticulously arranged exhibition will immerse you in the complex daily life of children living in the violent environment of some of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Julien Heimann will humorously examine the inconsistencies of our contemporary consumer society, while Tamara Eckhardt’s portraits will bear sympathetic witness to the daily lives of the young people of St Mary’s Park, the most impoverished neighbourhood in Ireland. The installation by the Biel/Bienne artists F&D Cartier will look at photography as a medium that exists as both material and process. Photoforum director Amélie Schüle will hand over an exhibition space to the artists of the Le Salon & guests collective, while Nina Rieben, on the invitation of Laurine Landry and Janosch Perler, will take over espace Libre. 

Outside the bâtiment/Haus Schwab, Lalie Thébault Maviel will exhibit plates drawn from an encyclopedia on the presence of bread in our lives, while at the entrance the Biel/Bienne City Archives will present a selection of images, taken between 1900 and 1980, from the photo collection of the former municipal police. On the ground floor, Nina Ferrer-Gleize, in collaboration with the GwinZegal Art Centre, will present a strikingly topical work documenting her uncle’s life as a farmer. Alice Pallot will show her research on the environmental and health issue of the proliferation of green algae in coastal waters. Upstairs, Léa Habourdin will examine the representation of the countryside and its disappearance, while new works by Brigham Baker will look at the transformations a material object can undergo in the course of its existence, up to and including its destruction. The photographs by M’hammed Kilito, presented in partnership with Gowen Contemporary, will shine a light on the environmental degradation of oases and the impact of this phenomenon in North Africa and western Asia. Finally, you will find this year’s edition of the SNSF Scientific Image Competition and its always surprising images. 

In the old quarter of the city, Rue Basse/Untergasse will be adorned with the large-scale photos made by Luca Massaro of words on signs, an exhibition created in partnership with Federica Chiocchetti and the Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle (MBAL). At the Grenier, Laurence Kubski’s installation will immerse you in what lies behind the scenes of the aquarium fish industry. The Biennale de la Photographie de Mulhouse will present the mysterious images of photographer Matthew Genitempo, who documented the daily life of hermits living deep in the woods on the border between Arkansas and Missouri. Pedro Rodrigues, winner of the near. prize 2023, will present in two venues (Juraplatz and the courtyard of the Farel House) his surprising observations on the tensions in the alpine landscape that are resulting from climate change. 

You can find more information about this year’s exhibitions on our website. In our next newsletter, we will have the pleasure of presenting our program of events created in collaboration with many partners. Stay tuned! 

Cartier Daniel