Planches Contact has been regarded over the years as one of the rarest festivals whose production was founded on the principle of the public request; it became an authentic observation’s laboratory of the territory through images. The exhibition’s 11th edition confirms more than ever the singularity of the festival, the production, and presentation of works created by a range of photographers invited to Deauville, in the creation’s residence, throughout the months predating the public opening.If the arrival of the pandemic and its consequences at an international scale shook up Planches Contact’s programs and schedules, it also opened fields of artistic explorations never seen until the edition of 2020, considered “special” according to the artistic director Laura Serani.
The festival readapted according to the border closure: residences of photographers coming from the African and Australian continents were postponed until next year whereas those coming up in 2021 were anticipated, with a programme headed towards European photographs. For the second consecutive year, Planches Contact opens to the whole Normandy, by offering the invited photographers to explore the region beyond the city, on the coast, in the countryside, and towards other urban areas. Already included in the festival’s DNA, the outward exhibitions are favoured, giving thus to all looks an overview of the complexity and wealth of the modern photographic stage.
SEVEN EXHIBITIONS BY INVITED ARTISTS :
- Evangelia Kranioti, offers unexpected portraits and a stage out of the ordinary, responding to this world, sometimes baroque, often mysterious.
- Todd Hido, arrived at Deauville in February, returned to San Francisco just before the lockdown, fulfilled by the northern lights in winter, has exalted landscapes and young ladies, still on the steps of primitive memories and images.
- Philippe Chancel, following on from his Data Zone work with an “of the scale” innovation, immersed in a setting/city and the surrounding landscape, investigates beyond appearances.
- Lorenzo Castore, got into a new chapter of his portrait of the “human condition”, still between choices and fates, tells the everyday life and hopes of a young romantic couple.
- Mathias Depardon, throughout his encounters, draws a portrait of the youth of Deauville, in this peculiar and subtle in-between, starting from the end of the lockdown until the start of the un-lockdown.
- Les Riverboom, funny and iconoclastic observers of society, they come back this year with a spot surprise: “Big kisses from Deauville”, to discover with the festival…
- Nikos Aliagas, during his residences, flooded Deauville as a whirlwind, with his enthusiasm, his curiosity, and his photographic work heading towards others.
TREMPLIN JEUNES TALENTS
Clara Chichin, Nadine Jestin, Manon Rénier and Hugo Weber are the young talents chosen by the panel, presided over Sarah Moon in order to receive a residence of creation for several weeks in Deauville. Competing for the Tremplin Jeunes Talents Planches Contact 2020, they give their interpretation of the territory they discover; their works are the subject of an exhibition presented during the festival.
MARTIN PARR - "Nos voisins anglais"
n this year of Brexit, Planches Contact makes a nod to Britain by dedicating the great exhibition about the beach to Martin Parr and its iconic pictures of New Brighton and the British coast during the eighties/ nineties.
FONDATION PHOTO4FOOD
A new installation takes place on the beach: four photographers, Charlotte Bovy, Thomas Dhellemmes, Letizia Le Fur, and Anais Tondeur currently in residency, will be exhibited thanks to the recent Fondation photo4food, the new partnership of the festival, involved in the struggle against poverty through photography.
CONCOURS PHOTO DE LA 25ème HEURE LONGINES
On the night of the 24th and 25th of the next October, one more hour will be offered to each one of us on the occasion of the change to Winter-Time. The Deauville Festival Planches Contact, offers a photographic competition opened to all, in partnership with Longines, to capture this mystical hour.
(c) Evangelia KRANIOTI, ADAGP, 2020 Festival de Deauville Planches Contact