Assembled by photo curator Roxana Marcoci.
Through this exhibition, one could discover how and under which circumstances photography became an art form and slowly reinvented sculpture.
Through the first daguerreotypes or Eugene Atget straightforward pictures of statues in Parisian parks we have a great example of how this art form has been used to record, preserve and archive art works; that was also a perfect subject for the early version of photography that needed a long time of exposure.
The art work could now reach a wider audience, photography allowed it to circulate in mass.
Later the camera begins not only to reflect but alter the shape and substance of the art work. Rodin, with Steichen photography of Balzac sculpture at moonlight in 1908, is maybe the first one who decided through which angle and light the picture should be taken, which almost makes the sculpture alive.
In the 60’s/70’s, the photo conceptualist works by Robert Smithson -Yucatan Mirror Displacements, or Gordon Matta-Clark - Circus of the Caribbean Orange, dematerialized the art work by replacing actual 3D objects with a picture and transforms environment into art by a subtle change, using mirrors or with pictures of abandoned houses sticked together with red tape.
Furthermore, the provocative “Photosculptures” by the Polish artist Alina Szapocznikow (closed-up of stretched chewing-gum) or La soupe de Daguerre of Marcel Broodthaers in 1974 questioned the presence and definition of sculpture.
And it’s in the last part of the exhibition, that we can examine the performance art and the use of body as living sculpture. Here the photography don’t have anymore a role of documentation but becomes a key in the work, generating actions through its presence.
The performing body object of Bruce Nauman, from 1966 - Eleven color photographs, as a response to Duchamp’s urinoir as a fountain is surely the best example.
This exhibition definitely changed my perception of photography and sculpture by blurring their limits; however the choice of the pictures could be of further investigation.
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