RIDEAU

2023

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Lambda print laminated to PVC, UV print on PVC, inkjet print on Hahnemühle ultrasmooth paper laminated to PVC, oak rails

100 x 135 x 5 cm

In French, the word "rideau" (curtain) evokes the end of a theater play; however, in photography, it refers to the curtain shutter, and in the context of East Germany, it naturally conjures up the image of the Iron Curtain and all the romance that goes with it. These three meanings coexist in these two assemblages, two episodes featuring a charismatic character curiously reminiscent of the mustachioed protagonist of an 80s American series. In the first assemblage , he is featured twice: on the one hand, alone in front of an azure-blue curtain - the color associated with the Pentacon brand - brandishing a camera as if ready to enter the limelight, and on the other, in a semi-blanked, almost mental image, seemingly sermonizing a group of people clustered around him.

By contrast, in the second assemblage, the first image shows him leering ruefully at his camera equipment, while the second semi-blanked image shows a group of Japanese searchers seemingly claiming victory amidst a jumble of electronic junk. It is, of course, the story of the decline of the East German camera industry that is suggested through this two-act piece, the incursion of microelectronics into camera construction in the 1970s having led to Japanese hegemony. This piece also echoes Placard (2015), another work with "shutters" in which I was referring to Kodak's sidelining of Steven Sasson, the now assumed inventor of digital photography, and in a broader perspective, to the company's bankruptcy.