For many years now, Michel Lamothe has made the notion of landscape the core focus of his photography. This retrospective exhibition attempts to shed light on the different forms of exploration, and the consistent aspects, of what is far more than a simple theme. By titling two of his series with the word paysage (landscape), Lamothe has underscored this aspect of his practice. For beyond the frequent presence of easily recognizable elements typical of the genre – whether in nature (mountain, tree, waterway, cloud, etc.) or in urban life (street, building, park, etc.) – his work questions multiple issues related to this type of imagery. The various series he has developed over the years seem to play, each in its own way, with the ambiguity inherent in the images, but also with our ability to truly see the world around us. The exhibition also includes works dealing with the human landscape, a subgenre of contemporary photography that represents the body in pictures to be read as actual landscapes. Overall, it suggests ways to follow the development not of a concerted theory of landscape but, rather, of what Michel Collot* calls a pensée-paysage (thought landscape).
Another part of the exhibition Fréquenter le paysage will be on display at Plein sud, centre d'exposition en art actuel à Longueuil, from November 2 to December 7, 2013.
Presentation on Saturday, November 9, 2013 at 2pm
Opening \ Launch on Saturday, November 9, at 3pm
* Michel Collot, La Pensée-paysage. Philosophie, arts, littérature (Arles: Actes Sud/ENSP, 2011).