Magali Joannon
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Magali Joannon
The artist presents an intimate diary of a solitary voyage taken through Camargue and Montenegro. It is solitary because he keeps his gaze distant from others, as if trying to hide his surveillance of them. He eavesdrops on their conversations and spies on their interactions without ever coming into direct contact, because of fear or shyness. 
Perhaps these travels are not a vacation, but instead are a return. The artist seems to return to certain places in hopes of finding something that was lost, to relive extinguished emotions, and to give make sense of the previously incomprehensible. For this, he insists on certain seemingly useless details: a window, a tree, an empty and unmade bed, or closed door. All are places that could point to a past that lives on in memory: a meeting place, a pathway, a passion quickly consumed, and perhaps abandon. 
Therefore, the voyage incorporates memory, as we observe the yellowish-toned photographs that seem pulled from a drawer after many years of hiding and that appear blurry as if being saved from the oblivion for which they were inevitably destined. It is as if they are seen through a glass filter that mistakes memory for the present. Ultimately, the photographs of Magali Joannon are evocative and often extraordinarily intense pieces. |