French artist Pascal Monteil who is in Delhi to conduct a photography workshop says that he paints with photographic elements instead of colour tubes.
India Habitat Centre announced a major initiative called India Habitat Photosphere this year. A year-long festival, it will be dotted with workshops, seminars, talks and exhibitions. Under its aegis is being organised first international photography workshop by French artist Pascal Monteil which begins on December 19. From Rome to Tokyo, through Ispahan, Lahore and Fatehpur Sikri, Monteil will take the participants of the workshop onto a visual journey through world art histories and their modes of representation.
Along with it, will be mounted his exhibition of three works displayed on the backlit panels along with explanatory panels, at Jor Bagh Metro Station. His work is an exploration and a re-interpretation of Persian and Indian miniature traditions. The artist elaborates on his work. Edited excerpts
Where do art and photography meet in your works?
I try in my works to represent the world as would do a painter, but instead of using colour tubes I use photographic elements. In my most recent paintings, like ‘Eden’ which is shown in the exhibition, I introduced more and more painted elements. What interests me is that in the same painting, a woman painted with a brush is shown discussing with another woman who has a photographic appearance. What I like doing is to create a dialogue, to confront seemingly different things and see that they are able to communicate with each other. According to me, technical choices must always be connected to an inner necessity. What I am doing with photography is what I like to see in life too, between people, between ways of living, between thoughts which are different, complementary or sometimes even contradictory... but still communicate with each other.
Can you explain the process?
My paintings are a huge building set of thousands of photographic, painted or drew elements.
I paint my paintings with brushes, photographic scanned elements, scanned drawings like a painter would draw with pencils. All these elements are in the space of the computer screen which is like a blank canvas of the painter. I will then create each figure, each structure from these multiple elements. Then I assemble these figures together. Each work is a work of patience that has taken three years of my life.
There are photographers who work with analogue whereas some prefer digital photography. Which category do you fall into?
I am not a photographer trying to capture the moment. My camera does not matter to me because it only serves to collect photograph mosaics in Isfahan, columns of Kolkata which will end up in the final work. It is a medium. My photographic studio is my screen.
Who is a photographer today? The person who takes selfies with her/his phone, an amateur trying his/her hand at DSLR?
The photographer is the one who looks at the world, or explores himself. Whether amateur or professional, it often does not matter. What makes a photograher interesting is his intention behind the photograph.
The practice of selfies is a scary practice. It is the ego becoming so monstrous that it obstructs the world. My view is that it is the opposite of an artistic approach where the world has to go through the photographer.
What would be the focus of your workshop?
The workshop will examine the paintings of the art histories from Japan, India, Persia, Italy during the XIIIth Century. The miniaturist painters of Isfahan and Lahore made very different choices from those of the Venetian painter. Because everyone sees the world through his culture, his philosophy. This may seem strange for a workshop linked with photography. But what I would like to share is a deep conviction: we do not need to see the world with our eyes but with our mind. And it is India that taught me that!
Alka Pande, Artistic Director, India Habitat Photosphere, on the idea
“Photosphere is not a festival. It’s not about display. It is about developing a taste, helping photographers, educating the viewers. It’s an ongoing dialogue with discussions, presentations, programming and process of photography. It has a meta-narrative of sustainable development being looked at through a fixed and mixed lens.”
(The workshop titled “The World Upside Down: Modes of Representation in The East and the West’ will be held at Experimental Art Gallery on December 19 from 10.30 a.m till 1.30 p.m. The fee for participation is Rs.400 for IHC members; Rs.500 for non-members; Rs.200 for students.
The exhibition will be on view at Jor Bagh Metro Station till March 2016)
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