Exhibition : LE SUPERMARCHÉ DES IMAGES – Jeu de Paume Muséum Paris, until June the 7th 2020
Why speak about this exhibition?
Over 3 billion images are shared every day on social networks. The “Image Supermarket” exhibition at the Jeu de Paume until June 7th asked a selection of international artists to look at this unfurling iconography in their own way to question our collective relationship to the omnipresence of images.
What strikes us :
Economy, culture, fashion, beauty, design … how has the profusion of images transformed our consumption and representation of ourselves and others ?
To help us understand these questions that directly impact our society and behavior, we met Marta Ponsa, one of the exhibition’s curators.
Artist: evanroth.com
Sandrine Maggiani: How has the overwhelming flood of visuals transformed our aesthetic perception of images in our daily lives?
Marta Ponsa: We live in a society where images are predominant. Because of the simplified, unlimited access to often standardized images our gaze seems to be either satisfied or else used to a certain aesthetic banality since we continually look at internet, YouTube and digital images.
This new concept, more centered on the images’ content, means that the message they convey has broken down the hierarchy that usually consists of developing an image to embellish it.
SM: Do these new uses create a more demanding relationship with the image of one’s self … or the opposite?
MP: “Since you were born”by the Artist Evan Roth , that opens the exhibition, puts in perspective the way we define ourselves today. Our portrait becomes public as soon as it is diffused on social networks, not just with our friends or community … We represent ourselves in our virtual life or our life on social networks … Thus this sharing reconciles how we see ourselves and others …
SM: Does this exhibition, that addresses all generations, contribute to accepting a less stereotyped kind of beauty ?
MP: The work of the artist Martha Rosler is a perfect example of an image of the woman-object with an imposed beauty that has been used and over-exploited by cosmetic, beauty and fashion brands … The lack of diffusion channels– which for a long time was limited to the written press or television – has reduced the image of women to stereotypical roles.
Today behavior has evolved with younger generations. The good thing about having images accessible everywhere has also broadened beauty ideals in a natural, viral way!
Artist : Martha Rosler
SM : Do you believe that the perception of beauty in general has become more democratic?
The youngest generations have a more uninhibited approach to self-representation through images. This is a more direct, almost intuitive way of sharing experiences. We see in it a certain naivety but also these generations’ control of the images they show of themselves. We no longer need to have an impeccable aesthetic to reach a public.
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