 "Trophy", 2001, Lambda Print auf Aluminium, 130 x 80cm Bohdan Stehlik "Les fantômes" - Photographs and video projection The large scale color photographs of Bohdan Stehlik are often part of a polyptych, revealing several angles of an almost identical situation. The obvious digital manipulations of his former works have progressively been replaced by subtle distortions of the image, often invisible at first glance, but clearly perceptible. A feeling of strangeness emanates from his universes, which are close to the manufactured realism of film settings. The spectator tries to rebuild the scenario subjacent to the image, fragment after fragment, in which the outcome always slips between the fingers at the last moment. The exhibition "Les fantômes" - Ghosts - which will be presented at the Centre pour l'image contemporaine, is impregnated by the potential of latent apparitions and dissimulated spectra. Right at the entry, a luminous projection lets traces of smoke appear, the smoke itself remaining hidden. In parallel, a large size photograph of a backyard at night, opens the way to the emergence of fictions in the visitor's mind. In a second room, a hanging of photographs of various formats provides the elements for a puzzle of dubious resolution. Shots taken at night, using a strongly colored, theatrical lighting, offer a fragmented vision of the interior and exterior of a barn. Incursions of bright light through the slits and openings of the roof contribute to merge the limits between the inside and the outside and to disrupt our notion of space; indeed, a spatial representation of the place always remains incomplete. "Trophy", a large size triptych of hard copy lambda on aluminium photographs, offers two points of view of the same domestic interior. Bohdan Stehlik uses here elements drawn from his visual data base to create a new, plausible, but slightly unwedged setting. In the foreground, for example, a monumental elephant tusk creating a dynamic link between the two photographs seems to be seized in levitation just above ground-level. It becomes the visitor's task to disentangle the riddle, the protagonists of the story seeming temporarily absent, and to reconstruct the time-space between two actions. In the third photograph of the series, a lush of tropical plants is staged in a greenhouse. A pink-orange light creates a natural bridge with the luminous atmosphere of the two other shots. The impression of fantasy is obtained by tenuous inconsistencies, in particular a depth of field distorting by the incrustation of elements photographed from various angles. Finally, at the end of the exhibition, a DVD video loop shows a traveling in a forest, eyes riveted on the ground. On our way, our glance is attracted towards various reflective objects in which imaginary playlets are revealed. Ausstellungsdauer: 17.4. - 16.6.2002 Oeffnungszeiten: Di-So 12 - 18 Uhr Mo geschlossen Centre for Contemporary Images Saint-Gervais Genève 5, rue du Temple 1201 Geneva Telefon +41 022 908 20 00 Fax +41 022 908 20 01 E-Mail: cic@sgg.ch www.centreimage.ch |
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