From January 6th through to April 24th 2020, Château Palmer will host the exhibition “Arctique” by the photographer, Jean Gaumy. The Frenchman, a member of Magnum Photos and elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2016, will present a selection of his photographs, taken during his recent scientific assignments to the North Pole. He gives one a unique vision of a fascinating area, well beyond the Arctic Circle, highlighting the same environmental concerns as those of Château Palmer. This exhibition was an obvious choice at the start of a year favourable to research and rich in discoveries.
We already knew about the Aquitaine photographer’s passion for enclosed areas, whether it be that of a hospital, a prison – in 1976, he was the first photojournalist to be permitted into a French prison or nuclear deterrent submarines. Hailed by Raymond Depardon and Marc Riboud, his first reports allowed him to join the agency, Gamma, before integrating Magnum’s team in 1977. Since then, Jean Gaumy has continued to expand the scope of his curiosity and his field of intervention: Iran, Central America, the contaminated territories of Chernobyl and Fukushima, the ocean waves aboard trawler boats, the high cliffs of Normandy…
Doubly rewarded with the Nadar Prize (2002, 2010) and elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts de l’Institut de France, in 2016, the photographer, on this occasion, roamed across Arctic landscapes shooting sumptuously magnetic compositions of flowing or frozen matter in primitive settings. Beyond his use of loose framing, one can feel his “decisive instinct” and, for a number of years now, his troubled reflection concerning Earth’s fate.
Global warming is three times more perceptible at the poles than on the rest of the planet. Since, 2013, Jean Gaumy has regularly accompanied oceanographers, from the BeBEST/LEMAR laboratory (CNRS, UBO, Natural History Museum), who study the impact of environmental changes on shellfish. He collects real life proof, searches for the mirage of ancient times and immortalises the threatened landscapes. From the Svalbard Archipelago (Norway) to the Daneborg base (Greenland), he voices his desire to “capture the genesis of the world” by pushing the “limits of photography”. The account of this northern immersion, right at the heart of the subject, quite naturally finds its place at Château Palmer, which shares the same desire to promote a territory’s footprint and to defend biodiversity, the same fascination for the “terra incognita” and a sense of adventure as well as the same conviction that art must serve nature.
The exhibition Arctique by Jean Gaumy may be seen during estate visits to Château Palmer, from January 6th through to April 24th 2020. Length: 2 ½ hours - 70€ - Reservations by e-mail: chateau-palmer@chateau-palmer.com
