francois BANCON-selected works

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

anonymous_attitudes_serie. each 150x150cm

I smiled a little here at these prefabricated stories, these facial expressions and postures borrowed from magazines ... but with a certain tenderness for these heroes of a day crossed here and there at random in parks, cafes and streets. They are everywhere, sometime dressed as for a party, often accompanied by a camera accomplice charged with immortalising the moment. I just slipped into the scene for a few seconds, stealthily, slyly, to steal a bit of a moment that wasn't meant for me.

These images, more than others, exist only through the targets of future “voyeurs”. They are images to "appear" ... what we are not, what we are not enough.?. There is, here, only the subject and its face to face with the idea of itself.

It's all about waiting, nothing more ... being what you think you can be. The distance that is created between the subject and the image is also an enigma. Contrary to these smooth and magnificent shots of stereotypes, of these “too much” images, I wanted to muddy the waters a bit, to detach myself from the inescapable horizon that will make all of these images end up drowned in the immense loneliness of social networks.

Anonymous, necessarily anonymous ... There lies the “truth” of this series. Photography can no longer be “what was there”. I needed a certain fixity, like that of the silent icons. I also had to isolate them as in a sacred space that says nothing about them. They are no longer characters, just attitudes, just simulacra. Simply put the images back in their world of images.

I had to dig deeper into myself to find the evidence of the photograph. Roland Barthes, “Camera Lucida”. 1980. Le Seuil edition.

The birth of the reader must be paid for by the death of the author. Roland. Barthes (in the death of the author / Le bruissement de la langue, Le Seuil edition. 1984).

Friday, March 26, 2021

francois BANCON et caetera

Francois BANCON

- Born in 1951 in France.

- Studied technology, art history and philosophy in Paris in the 70s. Designer / Engineer, Photographer, Painter since the mid-70s. Decides to stop painting in the mid-90s to use camera and computer. Then begins the series of photographs and “digital paintings”. Settled in Tokyo in 1999, then in Hong Kong in 2015 and in Shanghai since late 2020.

- Work structured in series (generally 9 to 20 elements) only able to account for the complexity of things, relationships, people and representation. The series, in general, uses "repetition" which often expresses a feeling of revolt and impropriety.

- The work of the last 20 years is influenced by 3 generic themes: Humanity, Memory and Resistance. More than 60 series to date) question more or less directly the place and role of the image in our societies in relation to what the image was in our (Western) civilizations, in turn Sign, Idol, Icon, propaganda and means of communication.

Characteristics :

- Almost unknown to the art world ... but is there an age to be discovered?

- Not close (and not very attracted) by the milieu and by the Art market (in general), its often hollow and superficial verbias and its mercantile crazes. Nonetheless a supporter of galleries and museums which support artists.

- Is represented in China by TNT Contemporary (Shenzhen) since 2019.

- Concerned primarily during these last 20 years by producing an intellectually consistent and current “work” rather than showing or even sharing at all costs.

- Not being a convinced practitioner of “Artificial Intelligence” or even virtual demonstrations, is very aware that the choice of digital in an otherwise “classic” representation context, places his work in a kind of “no Man's” land ”little appreciated by the market which likes nothing less than the classifications and the airtight drawers (there are fortunately some exceptions).

- Not a fan of so-called “immersive” works, often only decorative solutions. Supports the principle of “frontality” and the distance between the work and the viewer (instrumentalized relationship to the theater in the stage-room distance) which is one of the only means of transmitting (and not of communicating).

- Not a big fan of the Marketing / Art confusion, whose simplifying speeches and images have no consequences other than infantilization of the public.

- Admirer, as far as image production is concerned, of the pre-renaissance period (Icône - Cimabue) and renaissance (Fra Angelico, Giotto) ... of the beginnings of modern art as well and its distance from the subject (Rembrandt, Manet, Cézanne).

Saturday, October 3, 2020

CALL IT HOME serie. 9 digital prints, each 125x100cm except #9, 200x160cm

call it home série

9 images, #1 - #8 125x100cm, #9 200x160cm

Je photographie moi-même tous les éléments que j’utilise dans mes séries, souvent lors de longues errances ici et la.

En ces temps de déplacements limités, il m’a fallu revisiter ma banque d’images personnelles. Questionner le “chez soi” qui souvent est devenu contraignant, lieu de travail, lieu de vie, lieu d’enfermement même en ces temps de pandémie.

Le chez-soi est un territoire obsessionel mais les images qui le symbolisent sont d’ailleurs filtrées par une mémoire, des incidents, des rencontres et qui lui prêtent ses couleurs et ses formes.

Il s’agissait aussi d’un peu tout mélanger, de retrouver comme une émotion primitive. Il fallait être un peu indescriptible.

Monday, September 7, 2020

benevolent_shadows, digital prints, each 100x40cm

OMBRES BIENVEILLANTES, Nostalgie.

Ce ne sont pas images séduisantes, ce ne sont pas des images pour plaire. Il n’y a pas, non plus, d’attirance pour le sombre.

Simplement, peut-être, la beauté, l’imaginaire qui sont ceux de la ville, des villes, de l’urbain. Les images “de base” ont été faites à Hong Kong, à un moment où on ne voyageait plus, à un moment où les masques étaient partout. Et il faisait aussi très chaud.

Il y a des humains, comme des ombres bienveillantes, que d’autres humains éclairent.

Il y a aussi le désir de se débarrasser de ces “ego” multiples, de ces tourments internes, de ces états d’âmes... ou de cette sociologie de bazars...

On trouvera tout ça un peu austère, un peu froid et distancié même. Des images qui ne sont pas “à consommer”.... peut-être les selfies m’ont-ils finalement dérangé ... et les singeries de l’art contemporain aussi... Je pense que c’est juste à propos de mémoire et d’identité.

Comme pour échapper au “pathos” souvent larmoyant de la photographie… La mémoire est ici un peu figée, rétrécie, prisonnière de quelques flash de couleurs et de formes. La mémoire toujours est une re-construction à posteriori qui peut se contenter de l’essentiel.

La mémoire; une question de Temps et de Territoires.

Francois BANCON [aout 2020]

Que serions nous sans le secours de ce qui n’existe pas? [Paul Valery].