Alter - Group Show

The “Alter” exhibit is made possible by the coming together of thirteen artists, sculptors and photographers who all residents in the “6b.” Having grown up and worked within the same artistic environment, they are collaborating for the first time on the occasion of the Paris Photography Month sponsored by the Greater Paris Area.

The artists working here each have specific and various types of expression. They are interested in painting, sculpture, graphic arts, photography, architecture, video, even acupuncture and sociology. The exhibit brings together professional photographers as well as self-taught artists.

« Alter » is a collective project, presenting original works, specifically designed for the Photography Month sponsored by the Greater Paris Area. The exhibit follows the rules of open creativity. Each artist cooperates with the rest of the group to bring about his or her own ideas , needs and beliefs related to the notion of otherness.

This working method is a means to experience otherness in actuality. Indeed, The artists working in « Alter « exchange points of view with each other, learn from each other’s experience, from each other’s skills.

This creative process allows for intersection. The artists influence each other, contribute to their peers’ work, voice suggestions as to each other’s artistic endeavors.

Amongst the thirteen artists composing the group known as « Alter « , other subgroups formed, with specific attitudes revealed within them. However fluid the group may be, the concept of isolation is not antagonistic to the creative process, which does require moments of introspection and intimacy.

Otherness, by definition, deals with relationships. There is no otherness without solitude. There is the « me » the « we » : individually or collectively, we constitute identities. Beyond the « I » or the « we » exist others. Those we designate as « you » or « they. »

Identity seeks shelter from otherness so as to avoid falsification of an assumed permanence. Yet historically, alteration is the essence of identity. The construction of identity is possible through a series of additions, remodeling, renewals. Otherness calls for interaction and it is precisely at the moment of friction that identity is built, through its own altering.

curator: Dagara Dakin

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With: Chloé Belloc, Ceb, Les Sœurs Chevalme, Laure Crubilé, Robin Dimet, Damien Gautier, William Gaye, Denis Gueville, Sandrine Lehagre, Philippe Monges, Miki Nitadori, Jean-Marc Planchon, Ana Tamayo

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www.moisdelaphotodugrandparis.com

Dagara Dakin holds a degree in the History of Art. He is an author, critic and independent exhibit curator. He is the Paris correspondent for the review Contemporary Art And. He has worked on a multitude of projects, including : The Bamako Encounters (2005.), National Museum for the History of Immigration (2007-2011.), Articles and contributions on the topic of African photography and photography in Africa., Contributor : « Africa in Sights « . Filigranes Ed., 2005.

His works of criticism have been published, amongst other reviews, by Africultures and Contemporary Art. In 2010, he was curator for for the Passé Composé exhibit at the « 59 Gallery « in Paris. In 2013, he was associate curator for the Bridges exhibit during the « South Africa Year » in France. In 2016, he sponsored the « Shades of Days to Come» (Contours des jours à venir ) project during the Also Known as Africa fair. (AKAA.)