Zoom
259 – Le collectionneur
2004
Gilbert Garcin
Photography
50 x 60 cm Edition 11/12
Black-and-white Baryta print
There’s a Hitchcockian atmosphere about these pictures within pictures. Gilbert Garcin appears in his own existentialist photos with tongue-incheek titles. Meeting midway between humour and angst, these small fictional self-portraits (in which Mrs Garcin has also featured on occasion) serve as a pretext for a powerful allegory of the human condition. Allusions to art history, Calder, Serra and Morellet are all present.
Text : Carole Vantroys.
Translation : Pamela Hargreaves.
There’s a Hitchcockian atmosphere about these pictures within pictures. Gilbert Garcin appears in his own existentialist photos with tongue-incheek titles. Meeting midway between humour and angst, these small fictional self-portraits (in which Mrs Garcin has also featured on occasion) serve as a pretext for a powerful allegory of the human condition. Allusions to art history, Calder, Serra and Morellet are all present.
Text : Carole Vantroys.
Translation : Pamela Hargreaves.
Gilbert Garcin
France
Born in 1929
Born 1929 in La Ciotat.
Lives and works in Marseille
Some things improve with age. Former manager of a light factory, Gilbert Garcin began his brilliant career as a photographer after taking his well-earned retirement at 65. The situations he presents in his small Surrealist installations all have one thing in common: a highly developed sense of the absurd and self-mockery. Garcin could easily be the spiritual son of Magritte or a cousin of Jacques Tati’s character, M. Hulot. Assembled with the help of cardboard, glue, sand, cut-up photographs and Meccano pieces, his magical, minimalist enactments are also ironic references to the reign of virtual images.
Text : Carole Vantroys.
Translation : Pamela Hargreaves.
Lives and works in Marseille
Some things improve with age. Former manager of a light factory, Gilbert Garcin began his brilliant career as a photographer after taking his well-earned retirement at 65. The situations he presents in his small Surrealist installations all have one thing in common: a highly developed sense of the absurd and self-mockery. Garcin could easily be the spiritual son of Magritte or a cousin of Jacques Tati’s character, M. Hulot. Assembled with the help of cardboard, glue, sand, cut-up photographs and Meccano pieces, his magical, minimalist enactments are also ironic references to the reign of virtual images.
Text : Carole Vantroys.
Translation : Pamela Hargreaves.
Visit the Collection
Book a visitThe visit of the Collection is open to you! Come alone, in a group or on a school outing !
Reservation is mandatory in order to offer you a guided tour, at La Défense or by videoconference.