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Jean-Claude Bélégou live again : FAUX-SEMBLANTS 2017/2023
« Considérons ce garçon de café. Il a le geste vif et appuyé, un peu trop précis, un peu trop rapide, il vient vers les consommateurs d'un pas un peu trop vif, il s'incline avec un peu trop d'empressement, sa voix, ses yeux expriment un intérêt un peu trop plein de sollicitude pour la commande du client, enfin le voilà qui revient, en essayant d'imiter dans sa démarche la rigueur inflexible d'on ne sait quel automate tout en portant son plateau avec une sorte de témérité de funambule, en le mettant dans un équilibre perpétuellement instable et perpétuellement rompu, qu'il rétablit perpétuellement d'un mouvement léger du bras et de la main. » J.-P. Sartre, L'Etre et le Néant.
So it is with our little theaters of daily life in which we hold our roles which hold us and hold them, the young teacher takes on the skin of the teacher, and the husband the skin of the spouse.…In search of authors.
Every image is thus a double simulacrum, on the one hand because there is no reality in what we appear, on the other, in the sense Plato understood it because it is only the imitation of outward appearances, requires no real knowledge of what we represent, and is in no way useful from the point of view of action (hence the vain pretensions of erroneously called "documentary" photography). As for photography, we are reduced to the imprint, the trace, of a few rays of light... Aren't we par excellence in the field of art and illusion? Dreams, trompe-l'oeil, the impression of reality conferred by the photographic image, or a fortiori cinematographic image, capable of making us forget the frame, the piece of paper or the screen.
The question of distance from reality has always preoccupied me. The Noir Limite manifesto in 1985 proclaimed, "What is painful in closeness is the distance that remains". And photographically speaking that of the distance to the motif or the model. This is how in my landscapes I have repeatedly practiced immersion: photographing the sea or a lake while swimming in the middle of the waves or the snow while running in it, as much as possible, remain memorable experiences for me. As for the relationship with the models, my series Noir Limite/Corps à Corps in 1987 in which I photographed my hand on the body of the model in a mirror, remains for me an experience of transgression of academicisms and exploration of a point of view decidedly subjective. Put the sensation in the place, or at the heart, of the vision rather than abandoning oneself to the exteriority of the visual. Later, a series such as Artist & Model(s) in 2004 or Destins in 2008-2010 were a step further in this search
False pretences therefore. Amorous feints to which the models lend themselves with a certain happiness. Is it pure theatricality on their part? Or is “pray and you will believe” (Pascal) enough to bring out the desired emotion? Love, with its alwayss, with its nevers, doesn't it have a lot of affectation and simulation?
Colors digital, print with archival inks 60 x 90 cm printed by the artist, limited editions, delivered matted, numbered and signed..