Jean-Baptiste Beranger, Film star (pos), Print (skull), Trois poings (2 of 3), C-prints, variable dimensions

16 May–15 June: Jean-Baptiste Beranger, Telles que sont les choses, photography

We are proud to present Jean-Baptiste Beranger’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. Beranger explores photography in an almost scientific manner based on a deep knowledge of all aspects of the photographic process. By folding filmstrips into stars, he plays with the positive and negative qualities of the film itself. When he is letting light flow through the hands or face, the visual language that is so familiar to us is given a supernatural dimension. Like a magician, Jean-Baptiste Beranger challenges our perception in using the basic elements of photography to create innovative images. Lars-Erik Hjertström Lappalainen calls this ”arcaic high end photography”, allowing for contradictory terms to define the essence of Jean-Baptiste Beranger’s artistry in the exhibition text. ”In his working process, Jean-Baptiste Beranger prefers to isolate some aspect of photography – light, lense, imprint etc – in order to find out whether it will result in a photographic image, without the camera. When he makes an imprint in the snow it is already in a sense a photographic image, or a pre-photo”, writes Hjertström Lappalainen. Beranger, born 1975, left École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, in 2000, and has also studied at The Swedish Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. His work has been shown in various exhibitions in Sweden and France. Beranger is represented in several public and private collections. The exhibition runs until 15 June. Read more