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From May 11th until June 13th, 2021, Echo Fine Arts is pleased to present "Equilibrium" by French artist Olivier Valsecchi (b. 1979). Featuring the eponymous series for the first time, it also highlights his latest bodies of works: Amazon and Stark Naked.
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Olivier Valsecchi uses photography as a medium to incarnate the emotions of his psyché. Directing nude models like a conductor, he orchestrates perfect fantasmagorical images where bodies, outlined in dramatic chiaroscuro, are deprived of gender or identity to be merely used as elements of a narrative.
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Olivier Valsecchi initially studied music as a teenager. As he began creating cover art for his record sleeves, he became passionate and engrossed by photography. He then spent the next ten years taking portraits for his own enjoyment and mastering his skills upon entering the ETPA photography school to perfect his technical skills. His work is dark and mysterious, oozing the magic of nature, and uniquely represents the peculiar cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. As a way to translate his emotions, Valsecchi doesn't magnify one's body but rather, uses it as an empty vessel to channel his own subconsciousness, therefore compose pictures that he qualifies as self-portraits, although he doesn’t necessarily physically appear on the photos. He finds his whole working system, from visualizing a certain image to capturing the moment, to be based on his personal instinct. With his striking black and white images and almost statuesque models, Valsecchi’s work truly brings beauty and character to aspects of life that are rarely thought of as alluring.
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Equilibrium
« He was going to live a day at a time (...) riding the Present in a balancing act, indifferent to the two slopes of time. »
Malègue, Augustin, t. 2, 1933, p. 188
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Definition
1 : a state of intellectual or emotional balance : poise trying to recover his equilibrium
b : a state of adjustment between opposing or divergent influences or elements2 : a state of balance between opposing forces or actions that is either static (as in a body acted on by forces whose resultant is zero) or dynamic (as in a reversible chemical reaction when the rates of reaction in both directions are equal)
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Equilibrium V, 2020
The genesis of Equilibrium appears to be almost accidental, with no prior conceptualization or planning, which is an exception in Valsecchi's body of work. It imposed itself almost naturally following some personal events which led him to stay away from photography for a while. This period of time, which he defines as a moment of static bewilderment, eventually acted as the catalyst to a new and balanced state of motion.
Instinctively arranging human bodies as a vessel for his own mental state, Valsecchi rooted them in front of a muted background recalling his previous series, Amazon. The choice for this dark juniper green color is for the artist inherently linked to the origins of classical painting, hence establishing a parallel to his subject: a turning point. Equilibrium also highlights the importance of working on oneself to stay afloat. While some characters are submitted to an intense pressure, Valsecchi points at the importance of the viewer's personal approach to interpret his images: is the model intensely pushing a wall away, or conversely, using it to take support and balance? The title itself, Equilibrium, implies the existence of two opposing states. These are depicted here as senses of heaviness and lightness, which are delicately illustrated by the postures; While some seem to reach a breaking point, others are on the verge of levitating. -
Olivier Valsecchi
Equilibrium IV, 2020 C-Type print
90 x 120 cm
35 3/8 x 47 1/4 in
Edition of 3 -
"Balance, in the world of circus performance, is the contradictory quest for suspending a furtive motion for just a few seconds. It implies thwarting and stretching time, rendering a minute into a single second. Some balanced poses are so delicate that they require a few minutes to achieve, to eventually fall down like a house of cards.
It is this energy, which I photographed - the one that is on hold and which obliviates the efforts required to reach the goal as well as the subsequent collapse."
Olivier Valsecchi
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Amazon
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Amazon Lucy, 2016
Ode to diversity and hybridization, Amazon revisits the mythological figures of Adam and Eve via the prism of multi-ethnicity and childhood. The characters, coming straight out of a Disney movie, have been shot in front of a swampy green tapestry depicting a post-apocalyptic Garden of Eden.
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"His models hence become natives of a new primitive civilization born out of chaos."
Inspired by XVIth century Flemish and Renaissance painting, Valsecchi used an ancient hand-sewn "portière" to anchor his subjects in a Classical context reminiscent to the original vegetation. Faithful to his sober sense of composition where lighting plays a full-fledged role, he stripped his characters from any accessories other than their tattoos. Tribal by nature, these are considered to be primeval markers of one's identity and social affiliation. His models hence become natives of a new primitive civilization born out of chaos.
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Olivier Valsecchi
Amazon Léna, 2016 C-Type print
100 x 80 cm
39 3/8 x 31 1/2 in
Edition of 10 -
Stark Naked
ongoing -
Stark Naked I, 2020
In Western art specifically, the history of nudity has been a recurring dialogue within Greek art, Roman art, Renaissance, Neoclassicism. Each affiliates with its predecessor. However, anchoring an artwork in a tradition shouldn't be the sole justification for the represention of nudity in art; the social and sexual context the artist evolves in is to be taken into account.
The human body liberated itself from cumbersome clothing in the first half of the XXth century to eventually reach a level of full acceptance in the second half. However, contemporary social media appears to be a clear barometer of a reversed tendency. Showing the naked body for what it is, is considered unacceptable. Once related to freedom, in 2021, it embodies the paradoxes of a moralist society which views it as a shocking flagship of sexuality.
Whether it be classical greek poses with the model supporting himself on one leg with a subtle hip tilt, or XIXth century academic nudes, Stark Naked is in line with the tradition of referencing. Placed in the context of the "community rules" of today's social media platforms, Olivier Valsecchi's Stark Naked series makes a simple statement: a naked body is a form of art in itself and should be regarded as such.
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"A poem is a naked person"
Bob Dylan
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"Taking pictures showing a naked body is, in this day and age, an act of resistance.
It would be much easier to make models wear speedos as other artists do just to make the pictures publishable et shareable. Yet I am part of those who resist and shoot nude bodies which are NAKED, brand naked, Stark Naked!
I can even admit that this is my first real series of nudes, without any concept other than nudity, and it happens to be in a period of time where this has become digitally taboo."
Olivier Valsecchi
Equilibrium: Olivier Valsecchi
Past viewing_room
