Les perspectives (video) at RAGUSA FOTO FESTIVAL, Italy

28 August 2025 - 25 September 2025

Palazzo Cosentini

Corso Mazzini 97100 Ragusa
Italy

Started as a reaction to the closures imposed by the lockdown during the Covid period, and inspired by a painting by Manet depicting a bourgeois family on a balcony, Les Perspectives is a video project that questions the relationship between us, our intimacy, and the outside world, the other. The video shows a long sequence of doors and windows being obsessively opened and closed by the inhabitants. The door and window act as a threshold that divides the private from the public, symbolically representing the dichotomy between our need to protect ourselves and safeguard our most intimate and personal space, and our need to open up and create relationships with the outside world. To reach out to the world, a risky but inevitable act.

https://www.ragusafotofestival.com/charles-freger-les-perspectives/

Ragusa Foto Festival 13

Opening: 28–31 agosto 2025
Mostre fino al 28 settembre 2025

Bretonnes et autres silhouettes. FESTIVAL CARGO. St Nazaire, France

02 July 2025 - 28 September 2025

Galerie des Franciscains

25, rue du Croisic 44600 Saint-Nazaire
France

BRETONNES
Let’s start with Bretonnes and its cartography of headdresses. To capture his subject, the photographer surveys a territory defined by the geographical boundaries of historic Brittany. He patiently and precisely chooses the landscape in which the model will be sitting, and invariably sets up a frame beforehand, like a life-size filter, to create that special wadded texture.
Young girls adorned in starched cotton and lace, in work or ceremonial headdresses, pose in front of this background, planted in the open field, on the side of a country church or firmly anchored on a windy seaside plateau. Behind them are often their peers, children or mothers, cousins or friends, kept at a distance in a cottony mist. In this constant to-and-fro between the individual and the whole, so characteristic of the artist’s work, the photographs are both portraits and genre scenes, combining in the same frame the detail of an elaborate lace with the monumental contours of a silhouette.

Charles Fréger extends the imagery of la Bretonne, mixing influences from nineteenth-century realist painting, the Nabis, and the postcards of the inter-war years.

… And other silhouettes
Continuing his research into the emergence of a monumental silhouette, increasingly detached from its surroundings, Charles Fréger began a body of photographic silhouettes following Les Bretonnes in 2015, which he continues to expand. Essentialising the figure to its contours, gradually extinguishing its colours through gradual desaturation, the photographer focuses on the history of representations, imagery and their circulation in popular culture. In this way, the figure of the Breton woman is succeeded by that of the so-called “Swallow” from the Basque country, crossing the Pyrenees to find work and provide for the family, the Alsatian woman embodying the rifts of history, and more recently the Norman woman in her headdress and working in the fields.

https://www.lartalouest.com/

Charivari at Musée de Flandres, Cassel, France

28 June 2025 - 07 September 2025

Musée de Flandres

26 Grand' Place 59670 Cassel
France

As part of Fiesta, the 7th themed edition of Lille3000, the Flanders Museum is hosting a selection of photographs from Charles Fréger’s Charivari series. Installed on the museum’s terraces, this series focuses on satirical masquerades in Europe. On display are photographs of carnivals in northern Belgium (Alost, La Louvière, Telff, Stavelot, Malmedy, Eben-Emael, Fosse-la-ville) and Hauts-de-France (Cassel, Bergues, Solesmes, Trélon).

The photographer captures the masked, costumed and sometimes unrecognisable figures of these popular rituals, which combine excess, subversion and collective celebration. Some of the images, taken in Cassel itself, highlight the strong link between this region and the carnival traditions it perpetuates.
Charivari extends Charles Fréger’s work on collective identities, festive communities and symbolic figures.

ATP/ LES NORMANDES. Millénaire de Caen.

21 June 2025 - 21 September 2025

Grange aux dîmes

Rue de La Grange Aux Dimes 14980 Rots
France

ATP / LES NORMANDES
CHARLES FRÉGER

For several years now, Charles Fréger, best known for his work on masquerades, has been exploring the subject of regional identities through silhouetted photography. The Alsatian woman in a jockstrap, the Breton woman in a headdress, the horse-and-skirt from the Basque hinterland – these are just some of the idealised figures of a picturesque imagery, conveyed by the images of Epinal that adorn postcards and tins of biscuits, sardines and chilli peppers. It is these figures, sometimes tourist muses, sometimes regional icons of nationalist and revanchist propaganda, that Charles Fréger turns his attention to.

For this new chapter, devoted to the Normandy women, he chooses first and foremost to look at the headdresses, undertaking an archaeology of the forms preserved in the region, in the showcases, archives and storerooms of the Museums of Popular Arts and Traditions (ATP) initiated by Georges-Henri Rivière in the 1940s.

The diversity of headdresses, whether wildly baroque or discreetly functional, was soon joined by tools, ‘singular objects of folk arts and traditions’, also treated in silhouette. Sometimes taken from the museum’s storeroom, from a private collection, or from the archives of folk associations and federations, the objects reveal the slightest detail of their contours, but sometimes retain the mystery of their original function.

CIMARRON, FIESTA, LILLE 3000, FRANCE

18 April 2025 - 22 June 2025

Le Minorelle

25 rue Raymond Derain 59700 Marcq-en-Baroeul
France

The Cimarron exhibition, organised in partnership with the CRP/ Centre Régional de la Photographie Hauts-de-France, presents a selection of photography work by Charles Fréger (1975) devoted to masquerades.

The French photographer travelled to North and South America to create a non-exhaustive inventory of masquerades, performed mainly by the descendants of African slaves, celebrating the memory of their peers and their unique cultures.

Within these masquerades, – the masks, make-up, costumes, ornaments and accessories – African, indigenous and colonial cultures intermingle, caught in the vertigo of a centuries-old syncretic movement. Here, more than ever before, the masquerade falls within the scope of one community’s view of another, a space in which the relation to the oppressor is replayed or reinvented, whether imitating or reversing it, but always subverting it. On the path to Cimarron, which only partially expresses the practice of slavery, a form of opposing power takes shape. Rather than concealed by the masquerade, it is revealed by it.

Shot between 2014 and 2018, this series covers fourteen countries in the American continent, from southern US states to Brazil.

Curatorship:
Audrey Hoareau, Director of the CRP/ Centre Régional de la Photographie Hauts-de-France

With the CRP / Centre régional de la photographie Hauts-de-France

CIMARRON in Mascara·des ! Fondation du doute, Blois, France

08 February 2025 - 11 May 2025

Fondation du doute

14 rue de la Paix 41000 Blois
France

(…)
But if life is nothing more than a huge masquerade, then a new horizon opens up before us, one that is particularly exhilarating and liberating: against the vicissitudes of the inner quest and other monastic introversion , the art of the mask asserts itself as a conscious, extroverted and joyful bricolage of characters, capable of undermining the existence of a Subject in itself, as well as any other immutable and authentic Truth. These practices are no longer seen as a simple carnivalesque inversion – temporary and therefore reassuring – of values or eternal laws, but as an attempt to subvert the established Order, that great costume ball populated by naked and amnesiac kings. The exhibition also presents a selection of works from the collections of the Centre des livres d’artistes.

Guest artists:
Charles Fréger
Stéphane Goldrajch
Romuald Jandolo
Aurore-Caroline Marty
Messieurs Delmotte
Dominique Théâte

https://www.fondationdudoute.fr/exposition/35/1637-les-expositions-temporaires.htm

WILDER MANN at MON OURS EN PELUCHE, MUSEE DES ARTS DECO, PARIS

04 December 2024 - 22 June 2025

Musée des arts décoratifs

107, rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris
France

The undisputed king of toys, the teddy bear descends on the Musée des Arts décoratifs to tell his incredible story. Born at the very beginning of the 20^th century, he quickly earned a place for himself in the hearts of children, dethroning toys whose existence dated back to Antiquity, like dolls or animals on wheels. Since then, the teddy bear has become the quasi-universal symbol of childhood, and synonymous with tenderness and gentleness. But how has the former king of animals, revered for his strength and feared for his ferocity, transformed into the most popular of toys?

https://madparis.fr/

WILDER MANN in St Yrieix

12 October 2024 - 14 December 2024

Centre Culturel J.P. Fabrègue

14 avenue du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny 87500 St Yrieix
France

THE BODY AS CANVAS, Cortona, Italy

12 July 2024 - 03 November 2024

Festival Cortona On The Move

Via Dardano 5 52044 Cortona
Italy

The Body as a Canvas
Curated by Lars Lindemann & Paolo Woods

Christian scripture prohibits it, Jewish religious doctrine does not tolerate it, and for most Muslim believers it is haram – a major sin. Nonetheless, tattoos, scarifications and other forms of body modification have never been more ubiquitous and accepted than today. Human skin has been used as a canvas for thousands of years. In The Body as a Canvas, images developed for anthropological research are made to coexist with contemporary artistic projects, vernacular images interact with street photography, and portraiture echoes historical images. The wide-ranging works include, among others, images by Chloé Jafé, Klaus Pichler, Denis Rouvre, Herbert Hoffmann, Charles Fréger and Florian Spring. From the most exquisite tattoos to the most vulgar, The Body as a Canvas brings a whole new meaning to the expression “skin deep.”

The exhibition includes works by: Alexander Anufriev, Charles Fréger, Herbert Hoffmann, Chloé Jafé, Mark Leaver, Library of Congress – Washington DC, Denis Rouvre, Klaus Pichler, Uriel Sinai, Florian Spring, Dougie Wallace, Hanne Zaruma.

Une histoire d’images, Donation Antoine de Galbert au Musée de Grenoble

16 December 2023 - 03 March 2024

Musée de Grenoble

5 Pl. de Lavalette 38000 Grenoble
France

Du 16 décembre 2023 au 3 mars 2024, le musée présentera sous le titre d’Une histoire d’images, le premier bilan du fonds de photographies rassemblé ces quatre dernières années grâce aux dons réguliers effectués par Antoine de Galbert et sa fondation. L’ensemble offre un panorama impressionnant de notre époque et du rôle déterminant joué par la photographie dans l’élaboration de nos perceptions et des mythologies contemporaines.

(…)

Ainsi, à travers 270 images réalisées par 95 photographes, de Dorothea Lange à Wiktoria Wojciechowska, de Paul Strand à David Goldblatt en passant par Luc Delahaye et Gilles Raynaldy, cette exposition présentera un premier bilan de ce mécénat exceptionnel et permettra d’esquisser un portrait à la fois objectif et subjectif de notre époque tout en illustrant de manière originale une certaine vision de la photographie.

https://www.museedegrenoble.fr/3011-une-histoire-d-images.-donation-antoine-de-galbert.htm

SILHOUETTES, La Chambre, Strasbourg

18 November 2023 - 18 December 2023

La Chambre

4, place d'Austerlitz 67000 Strasbourg
France

En s’intéressant au costume en tant que marqueur de l’identité individuelle et de l’appartenance à un groupe, Charles Fréger poursuit depuis plus de vingt ans un inventaire photographique des communautés sociales, culturelles, professionnelles… dont il décrit les membres avec des portraits posés incluant leurs attributs caractéristiques. Il photographie ainsi des communautés dans le monde entier et est largement exposé et publié à l’international.

La Chambre, en collaboration avec le Musée Alsacien de Strasbourg, a accompagné le travail de Charles Fréger durant cinq ans pour la création de sa nouvelle série Souvenir d’Alsace interrogeant la construction de l’identité alsacienne.
Conjointement à l’exposition au musée, La Chambre propose une mise en perspective de l’œuvre de l’artiste par la présentation d’extraits de ses séries axés sur la silhouette photographique.
Ce traitement, qu’il développe depuis plusieurs années sous différentes formes, est appliqué à des figures choisies dans une culture visuelle commune et les essentialise à leurs contours.
Le travail est nourri de recherches iconographiques brassant à dessein l’érudit et le populaire, mêlant volontiers les époques, de l’âge moderne au 21ème siècle. Dans L’Épopée de Jeanne d’Arc par exemple, aux côtés du récit historique se joue également celui des représentations du personnage, de ses « usages » à travers les siècles. En Bretagne, au Pays basque, en Alsace, ce sont les représentations de cultures régionales fortement marquées que l’artiste investit. Dans ces deux dernières régions frontalières, les morsures de l’histoire entament la surface lisse de l’image folklorique. La silhouette, alors, dans le tranquille dénuement qu’elle avance, expose les ressorts parfois brutaux d’une imagerie populaire qui repose sur la fabrication de figures archétypales, tantôt à des fins de cohésion, tantôt – et parfois dans un même mouvement – à des fins de stigmatisation.

HUMAN KIND at Red cross museum, Geneve

19 October 2023 - 28 August 2024

Musée international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge

Av. de la Paix 17, 1202 Genève, Suisse 1202 Genève
Switzerland

Human.Kind. presents an alternative approach to photographing humanitarian action. The exhibition showcases the work of 30 of the 3,000 photographers from around the world who’ve been nominated for the Prix Pictet since it was first awarded in 2008. Their images depict key aspects of humanitarian action differently from anything we see in the news. What sets them apart? An unerring sense of compassion.

Curators: William A. Ewing, Elisa Rusca.

Head of project: Pascal Hufschmid

Photography of the exhibition,  for the Red Cross museum. © Zoé Aubry

https://redcrossmuseum.ch/exhibitions/human-kind-photography-exhibition-pictet/

AAM AASTHA at LES RENCONTRES D’ARLES, FRANCE

03 July 2023 - 24 September 2023

CHAPELLE SAINT-MARTIN DU MÉJAN

Pl. Jean Baptiste Massillon 13200 Arles
France

The photography project Aam Aastha, produced in India from 2019 to 2022, is a part of Charles Fréger’s series on masquerades around the world: Wilder Mann (2010-ongoing), Yokainoshima (2013-2015), and Cimarron (2014-2018).

In India, the photographer went out to meet a pantheon of a thousand faces: divinities are legion, embodied in sacred performances in temples, theaters, and the street. Portraying the gods involves redistributing assigned social roles the time of the masquerades, which vary according to region, ethnic and religious communities, and follow current events. Through costume, the actors become the true, temporal incarnations of god: changes in appearance incite changes in status. Aam Aastha, whose title refers to these “common devotions”, captures the vivid avatars and uncovers the masked game of performance, between reinforcing power and subversion, set against a political background dominated by a Hindu Nationalism that tends to homogenize traditional practices. The photographs were taken with the support of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, the Fondation Antoine de Galbert, the Région Normandie, the Institut français en Inde and the Musée d’histoire de Nantes.

SOUVENIR D’ALSACE at MUSEE ALSACIEN, Strasbourg, France

09 June 2023 - 01 April 2024

Musée alsacien

23-25, quai Saint-Nicolas 67000 Strasbourg
France

The “Souvenir d’Alsace” exhibition presents the result of an artistic residency led by Charles Fréger in Strasbourg, between 2018 and 2022. During this period, the Musée Alsacien and La Chambre welcomed this internationally renowned photographer to lead a large-scale artistic project based on Alsace.

Exploring the picturesque iconography of Alsace, as it developed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Charles Fréger questions the construction of identity and its instrumentalization for national ends. Starting with Alsace-Lorraine, as a point of tension between France and Germany, he questions the broader vision of the other, the enemy, or at the very least, the one we designate as such. Illustrations, imagery and, above all, caricature and propaganda provide food for thought for the artist. He combines them with Alsatian and Rhineland folklore. Carnival masks and floats, cross-stitch embroidery and glass-blowing are all used to produce a poetic, nostalgic snapshot of Alsace, whose fearsome effectiveness reminds us just how topical the question of identities and their instrumentalization remains.

Following “Bretonnes” (2011-2014) and “La Suite basque” (2015-2017), “Souvenir d’Alsace” (2018-2022) is the third part of Charles Fréger’s research into regional identities. For this project, he favors silhouetting his subjects, a technique he has already experimented with in previous projects. This approach gives the subject a specific discursive function; by distancing it from an overly factual reality, it places it in the sphere of narrative, or even myth as Roland Barthes understood it, and thus invites a salutary distancing.

The exhibition takes place in six rooms of the Musée Alsacien’s permanent exhibition space, and also extends into the new space adjoining the museum. Nearly 80 works produced by the artist for this project are presented for the first time. Photographs, ceramics, glass, illustrations, video and animated films all bear witness to the close collaboration Charles Fréger has forged with the hundred or so cultural players from the Grand Est and Upper Rhine regions who have been mobilized around this project. Contemporary works also interact with historical pieces from the collections of the Musée Alsacien, other museums in the region and private collections, providing an insight into both the artist’s approach and the rich material culture of the region in which he immersed himself for four years.

Curated by Marie Pottecher, head curator of the Musée Alsacien.

FANTASIAS in “DE LA BETE A L’HABIT”.

04 June 2023 - 10 June 2023

Musée breton

1 rue du Roi Gradlon 29000 Quimper
France

Découvrez l’habit breton du XIXe siècle, de la tête au pied. De la coiffe aux sabots en passant par les gilets et jupes, la visite vous fait découvrir les tenues des 4 coins de Bretagne par le prisme animal. Que ce soit sous forme de motifs, d’appellations ou encore par les matières, le vestiaire breton est un sacré bestiaire !

Discover 19th-century Breton dress, from head to toe. From headdresses to clogs, vests and skirts, the tour takes you on a journey through the 4 corners of Brittany, through the prism of animals. Whether in the form of motifs, names or even materials, the Breton wardrobe is one hell of a bestiary!

Durée : 1h – Tarif : 5€ / 8€ (droit d’entrée inclus) – Gratuit en octobre, novembre, décembre.
E-réservation sur le site du musée – Jauge limitée.

YOKAINOSHIMA at Etonnants voyageurs, St Malo, France

27 May 2023 - 29 May 2023

Chapelle St Sauveur

Rue Saint-Sauveur 35400 St Malo
France

Etonnants voyayeurs, website

A portraitist of human communities, Charles Fréger has been building up an inventory of “Photographic Portraits and Uniforms” over the past twenty years, whose astonishing variety and exoticism immediately captivate the eye. Photographed in the four corners of the world, his series are devoted to uniforms in all their guises: sportsmen and women, workers, Breton women in traditional headdresses, rituals of a bygone era… His photographs, often taken full-length, are akin to paintings that reveal the sense of belonging of individuals to their heritage or chosen community. Exhibited in Europe, the United States and Japan, his work seems to “measure the gaps from one outfit to another, from one tribe to another, all those gaps that make one oneself among others” (Didier Mouchel). In Yokainoshima, Célébration d’un bestiaire nippon, the photographer presents ritual figures from traditional Japanese culture. With their animal references and vivid colors, his costumes stir the imagination and fascinate with their strangeness. His new book follows in his footsteps, focusing on the divine figures of Hinduism, which today number in the hundreds of millions – and the pantheon continues to expand. The photographer captures their fabulous incarnations in ritual and sacred performances in temples, theaters and streets.

Portraitiste des communautés humaines, Charles Fréger bâtit depuis une vingtaine d’années un inventaire de « Portraits photographiques et uniformes » dont l’étonnante variété et l’exotisme exacerbé captivent d’emblée le regard. Photographiées dans les quatre coins du monde, ses séries se consacrent à l’uniforme sous toutes ses coutures : celui de sportifs, d’ouvriers, de bretonnes en coiffe traditionnelle, de rituels d’un temps passé… Ses photographies, souvent prises en pied, s’apparentent à des peintures qui donnent à voir le sentiment d’appartenance d’individus à leur communauté d’héritage ou d’élection. Exposé en Europe comme aux Etats-Unis et au Japon, son travail semble « mesurer les écarts d’une tenue à l’autre, d’une tribu à l’autre, tous ces écarts qui font qu’on est soi parmi les autres » (Didier Mouchel). Dans son ouvrage Yokainoshima, Célébration d’un bestiaire nippon, le photographe met en scène des figures rituelles de la culture traditionnelle japonaise. Par leurs références animales, par leurs couleurs vives, ses costumes soulèvent l’imaginaire et fascinent par leur étrangeté. Dans la continuité, son nouveau livre s’intéresse aux figures divines de l’hindouisme, qui se comptent aujourd’hui en centaines de millions – et le panthéon continue de s’étendre. Le photographe en capture de fabuleuses incarnations, à l’occasion de performances rituelles et sacrées dans les temples, les théâtres et les rues.

AAM AASTHA at Filles du Calvaire, Paris

22 April 2023 - 03 June 2023

WILDER MANN at Kunstsammlung Jena

18 March 2023 - 11 June 2023

Kunstsammlung Jena Städtische Museen Jena

Markt 7 07743 Jena
Germany

Charles Fréger durchquerte zahlreiche Länder Europas auf der Suche nach der Figur des „Wilden Mannes“, wie sie in den lokalen Traditionen der Völker noch heute lebendig ist.
Diese archetypischen Charaktere – halb Mensch, halb Tier oder Pflanze – tauchen anlässlich ritueller, heidnischer oder religiöser Feste aus den Tiefen der Zeit wieder auf und feiern den Kreislauf der Jahreszeiten, Fastnacht, Karneval oder Karfreitag. In den Volksstämmen der europäischen Landbevölkerung stellten diese Mischwesen Schutzfiguren oder Fruchtbarkeitssymbole dar, die beispielsweise den Schrecken der kalten Jahreszeit ein Ende setzen sollten. Heute erinnern sie an eine Zeit, als unser Leben noch deutlicher vom Wechsel der Jahreszeiten, Ernte oder – noch früher – dem Erfolg bei der Jagd, bestimmt war. Die „Wilden Männer“ lassen sich als vielfältige Inkarnationen unserer ursprünglichen, engen Beziehung zur Natur lesen, auf deren Oberfläche das Tierische zum Vorschein kommt. Wenn der „Wilde Mann“ in Legenden durch unbewohnte Wald- und Berggebiete streift, verkörpert er die archaische Seite einer als unzähmbar geltenden Natur.
Die Serie des „Wilden Mannes“ bildet ein unabgeschlossenes Hauptwerk, zu dem sich, dank neuer Entdeckungen, gelegentlich weitere Figuren gesellen. Wir zeigen 89 Fotografien aus dieser Serie erstmals in Deutschland.
Für die freundliche Förderung des Ausstellungsprojektes danken wir der Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Thüringen.

Charles Fréger crossed numerous countries in Europe in search of the figure of the “wild man”, as it is still alive in the local traditions of the peoples.
These archetypal characters – half man, half animal or plant – reappear from the depths of time on the occasion of ritual, pagan or religious festivals, celebrating the cycle of the seasons, Shrovetide, Carnival or Good Friday. In the tribes of the European countryside, these mixed creatures represented protective figures or fertility symbols, for example, to put an end to the terrors of the cold season. Today, they recall a time when our lives were more clearly determined by the change of seasons, harvest or – even earlier – success in hunting. The “Wild Men” can be read as multiple incarnations of our original, close relationship with nature, on the surface of which the animalistic emerges. When the “Wild Man” in legends roams through uninhabited forest and mountain areas, he embodies the archaic side of a nature considered untamable.
The “Wild Man” series forms an unfinished major body of work, occasionally joined by other figures thanks to new discoveries. We are showing 89 photographs from this series for the first time in Germany.
We would like to thank the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Thuringia for kindly sponsoring the exhibition project.

Kurator
Erik Stephan

04 March 2023 - 08 April 2023

Hazenstraat 26 1016 SP Amsterdam

Hazenstraat 26 1016 SP Amsterdam
Netherlands

WILDER MANN at Musée Buffon

08 July 2022 - 20 November 2022

Musée Buffon

Rue du Parc Buffon 21500 Montbard
France

https://www.musee-parc-buffon.fr/

AAM AASTHA at Musée d’histoire de Nantes

02 July 2022 - 27 November 2022

Château des ducs de Bretagne

Place Marc Elder 44000 Nantes
France

https://www.chateaunantes.fr/

https://www.chateaunantes.fr/en/expositions/aam-aastha/

After Wilder Mann in 2017 and Cimarron in 2019, Charles Fréger returns with a new series of photos, and his third exhibition at Château des ducs de Bretagne.

In his photo project, AAM AASTHA, Charles Fréger continues to research masquerade rituals around the world – a subject at the heart of several of his series: Wilder Mann (since 2010), Yokainoshima (2013-2015), and Cimarron (2014-2018).

Initially interested in the Ramayana (an ancient epic and founding text of Hinduism containing mythological and cosmogonic tales) and its different interpretations in Asian cultures, Fréger began a series of trips to India in 2019, a country in which he had already completed the projects Sikh Regiment of India (2010), Painted Elephants (2013) and School Chalo (2016).

He began his research in Southern India (Karnakata, Kerala, Tamil Nadu), exploring often spectacular incarnations of deities.
These mostly Hindu sacred dances and theatrical performances (Theyam, Katakali, Mudiyetu, Terukutu…) are practiced in temples, theatres, and street festivals. Incarnating a god obeys strict social codes, and members of the lowest castes are often assigned these roles. Because interpretations vary from one region to the next (depending on the state and its population), the photographer has zigzagged across over 20 states in search of a great diversity of avatars.

This exhibition will offer a sneak preview of nearly 90 of his unpublished photos.

With the support of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, the Antoine de Galbert Foundation, the Institut français in India, and Région Normandie.

Queens of Cebu at Pinto Art Museum

28 June 2022 - 07 August 2022

Pinto art museum

1 Sierra Madre St, Grand Heights Subdivision, Antipolo 1870 Rizal
Philippines

Catch These Works by 40 Filipino and French Artists in All-New Antipolo Exhibit

The exhibit features a mix of contemporary, applied, and fine arts.

https://www.spot.ph/arts-culture/art-exhibits/89693/diamond-in-the-rough-new-art-exhibit-at-antipolo-rizal-a5092-20220628

FABULA

20 May 2022 - 25 September 2022

MUSÉE DES BEAUX-ARTS, LE LOCLE

MUSÉE DES BEAUX-ARTS Marie-Anne-Calame 6 CH-2400 Le Locle
Switzerland

https://www.mbal.ch/expo/charles-freger-fabula/

BLUE HEAVEN in “Nos îles”

29 April 2022 - 18 May 2022

Fondation François Schneider

27 Rue de la Première Armée 68700 Wattwiller
France

CERF, CERF !

29 March 2022 - 29 May 2022

L’Orangerie

PARC ELISABETH RUE PORTE HAUTE 30 B-6600 BASTOGNE
Belgium

https://lorangerie-bastogne.be/exposition/cerf-cerf

Devenir [un autre] animal

26 March 2022 - 18 September 2022

Domaine de Chamarande

38 Rue du Commandant Maurice Arnoux 91730 Chamarande
France

chamarande.essonne.fr

GOTH, Design darkness

16 October 2021 - 18 April 2022

Design museum den Bosch

De Mortel 4 5200 AA Den Bosch
Netherlands

Goth is not a style but the visual expression of a feeling: the ‘seductive darkness’, a romantic, melancholic vision that after more than two centuries has firmly anchored itself in our culture. It is a powerful form of escapism – an attempt to forget the regular world and to hold a mirror up to it. Goth rejects a disenchanted modern society in which everything is open to explanation and offers the opportunity instead to lose yourself in a world of deep meaning, black magic and ineffable secrets in search of rapture and sensation.

ALSACE. RÊVER LA PROVINCE PERDUE. 1871-1914

06 October 2021 - 07 February 2022

Musée Henner

43 Av. de Villiers 75017 Paris
France

https://musee-henner.fr/agenda/evenement/alsace

Quickenings

11 March 2021 - 10 April 2021

CIMARRON in Chambéry, France

07 January 2021 - 30 April 2021

Espace Malraux, Scene Nationale

Place du Manège 73000 Chambery
France

The exhibition is currently only open to students of schools, colleges and high schools. This until the general reopening of museums, art centers, theaters and cultural spaces decided by the French government.
The dates of the exhibition will change according to government announcements.

FIF 2020, Belle horizonte, MAGENS RESOLUTIVAS // RESOLUTIVE IMAGES

07 December 2020 - 01 April 2021

/http://www.2020.fif.art.br/portfolio/sala-room-03/

/www.2020.fif.art.br/portfolio/sala-room-03/

FIF – Belo Horizonte’s International Festival of Photography is a biennial cultural initiative, which seeks to promote the dialogue among the photographic production from different countries, as well as to advance the encounter between photography and other means of creative expression.

The Festival, taking place in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, has the aim, for the duration of two months, turn the city into a meeting center for debates and reflections on the photographic production in Brazil and many parts of the world, through means of lectures, exhibitions, workshops, academic article presentations, projections, book shows and a Photographic Marathon.

Focused on the photographic universe associated with the research and the practices in the field of visual poetics, the Festival seeks to investigate creative processes which explore photography as a potential element of the poetic speech and its intersection with other media, for the production of knowledge.

The Festival international call received 1,745 entries – including photographs, videos, and feature films – from over seventy countries. About forty artists compose the exhibition with works that address ongoing and urgent issues and that bear a culture, a way of thinking and perceiving the world and the challenges they face. Among the themes raised by the works, there are the extermination of black youth in Brazil; the physical and symbolic marks – historically left by colonialism, which remain today; struggles in defense of gender diversity, socio-political and environmental emergencies, and the risks of an imminent collapse in a dystopian future. Through the most varied approaches, elaborated from different perspectives and contexts, there is a reality that is worth facing with resoluteness, imagination, and poetry, opening space for different ways of living and thought to coexist, meet and collaborate with one another.

The covid-19 pandemic led FIF to reinvent its routine, means of production, and connection with the public. In this scenario, FIF-BH 2020 exhibition takes place both online and on the streets, through posters pasted onto the walls of houses, institutions or establishments enrolled in the FIF EM CASA program. Registration was also open for those who wished to make a home installation. The registrants will receive a publication with works from the exhibition and must then return images from their private exhibitions to the festival. As Nego Bispo teaches us, it is necessary to re-edit the world from our own matrix and learn from each other that “every moment you start, you are in the middle and you start again”.

Monaco, Portraits filmés.

16 October 2020 - 03 January 2021

Salle du quai Antoine 1er

4 Quai Antoine Ier Monaco
Monaco

From 16 October 2020 to 3 January 2021, the Direction des Affaires Culturelles de Monaco will present an exhibition of filmed portraits created in Monaco by Charles Fréger.

This exhibition project, produced and organised by the Direction des Affaires Culturelles, curated by Björn Dahlström, was developed during the particular context of deconfinement.

Artist Charles Fréger casts his eye over Monaco and the different groups or communities that make up the country’s identity.

Workers, athletes, schoolchildren and artists were filmed at a time when social distancing became the norm. The artist chose to use moving images in order to create closer proximity between the subject of the film and the audience.

The exhibition will present these filmed portraits, projected and orchestrated by Charles Fréger, in the Salle d’Exposition du Quai Antoine I^er.

http://monacoportraitsfilmes.mc/

WILDER MANN

17 September 2020 - 17 January 2021

Galerie de l’Illet

Place Charles de Gaulle 35830 Betton
France

Du 17 septembre 2020 au 17 janvier 2021- Galerie de l’Illet

Depuis 2010, Charles Fréger a sillonné l’Europe du nord au sud, à la recherche de la figure de l’homme sauvage telle qu’elle survit dans les traditions populaires locales.

Ces images comme des archétypes, mi-homme mi-bête, animal ou végétal, resurgissent du fond des temps à l’occasion de fêtes rituelles, païennes ou religieuses, célébrant le cycle des saisons, les jours gras, carnaval ou la veille de Pâques.

Aujourd’hui ils évoquent un monde imaginaire, pulsionnel et physique où chacun perçoit un rapport ancestral à la nature, où affleurent les ressorts de notre animalité.

WILDER MANN , EN QUÊTE, Lille.

10 September 2020 - 15 November 2020

Institut pour la photographie

11 Rue de Thionville 59000 Lille
France

CIMARRON, festival Portrait(s), Vichy, France

17 July 2020 - 25 October 2020

Esplanade du Lac d’Allier

Avenue du Lac d'Allier 03200 Vichy
France

http://www.ville-vichy.fr/portraits/2020

Au programme :

Portrait(s) présente douze expositions, se tenant simultanément en centre-ville et à l’extérieur, à ciel ouvert : dans l’espace des galeries du Centre Culturel de Vichy, construit au début du siècle dernier et sur l’esplanade du lac d’Allier.

Sur l’Esplanade du Lac d’Allier

Une partie de la programmation 2020 regroupe des démarches documentaires. La série Cimarron du français Charles Fréger est née de plusieurs voyages à travers les Ameriques entre 2014 et 2018. Le photographe a traversé quatorze pays, du sud des États-Unis au Brésil, et dressé un panorama des mascarades afro-descendantes.

Bleus de travail / Vêtements modèles, MUCEM, Marseille

29 June 2020 - 06 December 2020

MUCEM

1 Espl. J4 13002 Marseille
France

Winner face/ Rikishi/ Maul/ Water-polo at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

27 June 2020 - 27 July 2020

About the Exhibition

WILDER MANN

12 March 2020 - 18 August 2020

Centre d’art contemporain intercommunal

2 Rue Alphonse Daudet 13800 Istres
France

Exposition prolongée jusqu’au 18 août 2020.

En raison des mesures gouvernementales face au Coronavirus, le centre d’art contemporain est fermé jusqu’à nouvel ordre.

CIMARRON, Périgueux, FRANCE

25 January 2020 - 14 August 2020

Espace Culturel François Mitterand

2 Place Hoche 24000 Perigueux
France

CIMARRON / Charles Fréger

Entrée libre du mercredi au vendredi de 13h à 17h, le samedi de 14h à 18h Rens. 05 53 06 40 00 (Agence culturelle)

Narcisse ou la floraison des mondes, FRAC NOUVELLE AQUITAINE.

07 December 2019 - 22 August 2020

MECA, FRAC

54 Quai de Paludate 33800 Bordeaux
France

EXHIBITION EXTENDED TILL AUGUST 22nd

L’omniprésence des fleurs dans l’art contemporain signe le profond renouveau d’un sujet le plus souvent considéré comme ornemental. La fleur est une matrice puissante qui compose les trois quart de la biodiversité végétale, produit l’air, le légume et le fruit. C’est ce lien nécessaire, essentiel que les artistes tels que Bas Jan Ader, Yto Barrada, John Giorno, Suzanne Husky, Jeff Koons, Suzanne Lafont, Thu-Van Tran, Lois Weinberger, et bien d’autres encore, interprètent et réinvestissent aujourd’hui à travers de nouveaux regards.

Et d’abord qu’est-ce qu’une fleur ? Une entité ambivalente, entre force et fragilité, intimité et société. Elle est le sexe de la plante frêle et matricielle.Elle est un enjeu de prédation, par nature politique. 

L’exposition Narcisse ou la floraison des mondes qui rassemble une centaine d’œuvres (vidéo, installation, peinture, dessin, photographie, sculpture) interroge la hiérarchie des genres artistiques et la fabrique du vivant industriel. Elle souligne les nouvelles sources d’inspiration que sont le mouvement écoféministe ou les récentes approches de la philosophie et des sciences. Que ce soit par la morphogénèse, l’« être fleur » ou la pensée sauvage, les artistes multiplient les points de frottements avec cette fleur encore largement inconnue, dont seulement un cinquième a fait l’objet de recherches.

Dès lors, Narcisse n’est pas tant le héros égocentrique qui domine et consume la terre, qu’un humain en pleine métamorphose, pressé de changer pour survivre. Il est celui qui devient fleur et embrasse les contraires. Le Narcisse est la fleur du printemps et du renouveau, celle qui s’ouvre à la floraison des mondes. 

https://fracnouvelleaquitaine-meca.fr/evenement/narcisse-ou-la-floraison-des-mondes/

CIMARRON in Amsterdam

22 November 2019 - 04 January 2020

Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen

Hazenstraat 27 1016 Amsterdam
Netherlands

http://www.woutervanleeuwen.com/exhibitions/charles-freger-cimarron/

All across the Americas, from the 16th century onwards, enslaved Africans escaped their captors and struck out on their own. These runaways, having found their freedom, established their own communities or joined with indigenous peoples to forge new identities.

Cimarron, borrowing a Spanish-American term for these fugitive former slaves, is a new series of photographic portraits of their descendants. From Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean islands and Central America, as far as the southern United States, elaborate masquerades are staged that celebrate and keep alive the history and memory of African slaves and their creole or mixed-race descendants.

Stock characters are portrayed in costume, or in grotesque or satirical representations. A huge variety of African tribal dress, wild ritual regalia and shimmering Mardi Gras outfits feature in breathtaking succession. Vividly coloured silks and cottons combine with woven fibres, leaves, feathers, and bodypaint; props include emblems of slavery and slavemasters – ropes, sticks, guns and machetes. These photographs record real people whose collective sense of memory, folk history and imagination dramatically challenges our expectations.

Partington + Fréger at James Freeman gallery, London

29 September 2019 - 19 October 2019

https://www.jamesfreemangallery.com/exhibitions/claire-partington-and-charles-freger

James Freeman gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Claire Partington and Charles Freger, two artists who explore how cultural identities survive, rebel, and reinvent themselves through historical motifs.

Claire Partington is a British artist whose ceramic figures draw deeply on the history of art to explore themes of feminism and power. This exhibition features two new groups of works: one of saints, one of sinners. In both, Claire looks to instances of inspirational female figures from art history and rejuvenates them with references to contemporary society. Her sinners are based on medieval images of Mary Magdalen, the ostracised female used by the church to represent the sinful nature of women, who then became covered in hair as a hermit. Claire’s Maries trace a connection between this and current positions on body hair in feminism, and present four instances of the ‘Hairy Mary’ as if they were classical Muses or The Four Seasons. The pair of saints take gothic form, like patron protectors of fortified city-states, only their wards are the London areas of Waltham Forest and Tower Hamlets – two boroughs created in 1965 and given newly-invented historic coats of arms to allude to their ancient trades and landmarks. In both groups, Claire revives ancient images of strong women, the unjustly condemned and the divinely revered, and articulates them as 21st century females, figures of power and independence.

Charles Freger is a French photographer who uses portraiture as contemporary anthropology, documenting folk costumes to capture the traditions and histories of communities across the globe. The works in this exhibition are taken from his latest project Cimarron which looks at the African diaspora in the Americas. The legacy of slavery is the inevitable spectre, and the Cimarron works describe how ritual and dress constitute acts of resistance against the imposition of power from without. Despite covering over a vast geographical area and being articulated in diverse displays, there are some common motifs: the image of the Devil, often interpreted as an agent of resistance and mischief against authority; the whip as a symbol of control, as well as an echo of a fetish; and the use of the body as a canvas to be painted, both as a tribute to the earliest slaves and as a defense against the harsh American environment. Together they constutite important cultural documents of the role of theatre in both the definition and the endurance of cultural identity.

Commedia del Arte, Journées du Patrimoine

21 September 2019 - 22 September 2019

L’Etable

ferme Hervieu 27170 Beaumontel
France

En collaboration avec le théâtre Pantakin de Venise, le photographe Charles Fréger réalise une installation vidéo constituée de projections simultanées ou synchronisées présentant les silhouettes des personnages principaux de la Commedia dell’Arte. À chaque tour, le personnage développe une émotion : l’amour, le dégoût, la malice, l’avarice, la séduction, le désir, la moquerie, la béatitude, la tristesse…
Charles Fréger demande aux acteurs du théâtre Pantakin de Venise, de jouer ces sentiments et ces états d’âme sans qu’aucune parole ne soit prononcée. Ce qui émerge alors de ces environnements confinés, c’est un langage foutraque et quasi animal, fait d’onomatopées, de soupirs, de gémissements, de halètements, grommellements et grondements.

Commedia dell’arte par Charles Fréger, exposition vidéo à L’Étable, château de Beaumontel, samedi 21 et dimanche 22 septembre 2019 de 10 h à 18 h.

CIMARRON at ASAMA photo festival/ PHOTO MIYOTA, Japan

14 September 2019 - 11 October 2019

MMoP (Former Mercian Karuizawa Art Museum) 1794-1, Maseguchi, Miyota-machi Kitasaku-gun, Nagano, 389-0207, Japan

MMoP, 1794-1, Maseguchi 389-0207 Miyota, Nagano
Japan

テーマに基づいた、タイポロジー（類型学）的なスタイルで、世界各地で精力的にポートレイト写真を撮影するシャルル・フレジェ。祝祭の装いを撮影した「WILDER MANN」「YOKAINOSHIMA」に続く、本作のテーマは「CIMARRON（シマロン）」。これはスペイン語で、環大西洋奴隷貿易の際にアフリカ大陸から連れ去られたのち、売られた地で逃亡した黒人奴隷を指し、南北アメリカ大陸に住む彼らの子孫たちがいまも行う、祝祭で身につける衣装を撮影している。

逃亡したシマロンたちは自らのコミュニティを作ったり先住民と交流したりして、新たな居住地（アメリカ、メキシコ、ペルー、ブラジルなど）で独自の文化を築き上げた。そして故郷のアイデンティティに加え、新天地の素材や意匠をも取り入れた衣装を纏い、祝福や祈り、支配への抵抗、悪魔や死などを表現し、共有してきた。フレジェは、その鮮やかで自由な造形美をもつ装いの奥深くに、力強いフラッシュを当てることによって、そこに隠れたいくつものレイヤーを浮かび上がらせる。

https://asamaphotofes.jp/exhibition/cimarron

Il est une fois dans l’Ouest, FRAC BORDEAUX, MECA

29 June 2019 - 09 November 2019

FRAC/ MECA

5 Parvis Corto Maltese 33800 Bordeaux
France

LA SUITE BASQUE dans:

L’Exposition inaugurale « Il est une fois dans l’Ouest »
Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA
Adresse 5 Parvis Corto Maltese
Bordeaux
La MÉCA
Horaires Du mardi au samedi 13h – 18h30 1er dimanche du mois 13h – 18h30 3e jeudi du mois jusqu’à 21h
L’exposition « Il est une fois dans l’Ouest » valorise la vitalité de la scène artistique régionale. Généreuse et ouverte sur le monde, elle s’écrit avec une pléiade d’artistes nationaux et internationaux, et de commissaires associés.

Fort contemporain au Musée du Château de Mayenne

22 June 2019 - 06 October 2019

Musée du château de Mayenne

Place Juhel 53100 Mayenne
France

L’exposition temporaire FORT Contemporain a ouvert ses portes et ses fenêtres le premier jour de l’été 2019 et s’est prolongée jusqu’au crépuscule de Nuit Blanche Mayenne ! Plusieurs artistes contemporains avaient investi le site du musée du château de Mayenne, s’inspirant des espaces, des techniques, des symboles des très riches heures du Moyen Âge. Cette exposition collective était donc une invitation à regarder les murs, les voûtes, fort et contreforts de l’architecture médiévale.

(…)Dès la rivière, l’exposition était visible grâce au pavoisement de drapeaux créés par Jules Julien. Le petit gardien de Laurent Pernot accueillait le public, entre protection et vulnérabilité dans le parc, ancienne basse-cour. Un contrefort moderne dans l’enceinte du fort permettait au public de passer la nuit dans une architecture éphémère de Barreau & Charbonnet. Une fois passée la porte du musée puis franchi le rideau richement ouvragé de Raphael Garnier, les photographies de Charles Fréger contaient l’épopée de Jeanne d’Arc. Les enluminures médiévales étaient réinterprétées par Julien Colombier, la pharmacopée par les œuvres des Rubenimichi. L’œuvre en briques contemporaines de Raphael Zarka tutoyait les briques du palais carolingien. Valérian Henry proposait de jouer à un jeu de construction dans le cellier lorsque Thomas Dellys donnait vie à une enluminure et Marie-Aurore Stiker Métral au bestiaire médiéval.

En partenariat avec le Kiosque, centre d’action culturelle de Mayenne Communauté. Commissariat : Mathias Courtet, coordinateur du centre d’art contemporain Le Kiosque et Mathieu Grandet, directeur du musée du château de Mayenne.

WILDER MANN, 212 PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

03 May 2019 - 12 May 2019

ALT – Yapı Kredi bomontiada

Merkez Mah, Silahşör Cad., Birahane Sok. Tarihi Bomonti Bira Fabrikası No:1, 34384 Şişli/İstanbul
Turkey

ALT – Yapı Kredi bomontiada,
May 3-12
Weekdays 10:00 – 20:00,
Weekends 10:00 – 21:00
The work of French photographer Charles Fréger (*1975) is considered groundbreaking in the complex genre of contemporary portraiture. In extensive series he portrays individual members of social groups – be it sports clubs, army corps or professional guilds – who demonstrate their affiliation to the specific collective through external signs such as uniforms, headdress, make-up, posture or even their body shape. In his work Fréger explores the extent to which organised communities melt into a single collective body and carefully studies and reflects the interplay between individuality and social affiliation.

Fréger’s acclaimed series Wildermann led him to eighteen European countries in search of the mythological figure of the wild man since 2010: Austria, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Germany, Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Switzerland, Finland and Romania. The transformation of human to beast is a central aspect in pagan rituals passed down over the centuries that celebrate the turn of the seasons, fertility, life and death – some still alive today in carnival or Advent traditions. The costumes often represent the devil, billy-goats, wild boars or the Grim Reaper; they utilize masks, horns, bells, animal materials such as fur and bones, and plant materials such as straw and pine twigs.

Centre d’art GwinZegal Ancienne prison de Guingamp

26 April 2019 - 09 June 2019

Centre d’art GwinZegal

4 rue Auguste Pavie 22200 Guingamp
France

Finally CIMARRON!

01 February 2019 - 14 April 2019

Château des ducs de Bretagne

Place Marc Elder 44000 Nantes
France

Cimarron est le troisième volet d’une série photographique entamée en 2014 par Charles Fréger consacrée aux mascarades ; après Wilder Mann (depuis 2010), dédié au continent européen, et Yokainoshima (2013-2015), localisé sur l’archipel nippon, Cimarron (2014-2018) s’ancre dans les territoires des Amériques. Dans un espace géographique s’étendant du sud des États-Unis au Brésil et comprenant quatorze pays, Charles Fréger dresse cette fois un inventaire, non exhaustif, des mascarades pratiquées principalement par les descendants d’esclaves africains, célébrant la mémoire de leurs pairs et leurs cultures singulières.

« Cimarron » : le terme revêtu par la série désigne initialement dans le monde colonial hispanique l’esclave fugitif ; puis il donne naissance au terme « marron », évoquant après 1848, date de l’abolition de l’esclavage, la figure héroïque de l’homme résistant à l’oppression. Derrière la multitude de traditions masquées présentées, se meuvent les fantômes d’hommes et de femmes aspirant à la liberté.

Au travers de ce corpus se déploient des mascarades dans lesquelles, entre masques, maquillages, costumes, parures et accessoires, s’entremêlent les cultures africaines, indigènes et coloniales, prises dans le vertige d’un mouvement syncrétique pluriséculaire. La mascarade est plus que jamais ici territoire de mise en regard d’une communauté par une autre, espace où l’on rejoue, où l’on réinvente le rapport à l’oppresseur soit pour le mimer, soit pour l’inverser, toujours pour le subvertir.

Au Château des ducs de Bretagne, soixante-quatre photographies sont présentées dans le bâtiment des expositions, quand six autres font écho aux collections permanentes du musée d’histoire, dans les salles liées à la Traite des Noirs et à la Révolution haïtienne.

“Dans le cercle”, Trocadero Paris

30 November 2018 - 10 December 2018

Théatre Chaillot

1 Place du Trocadéro 75016 Paris
France

Depuis près de vingt ans, Charles Fréger explore par un travail photographique sériel la relation de l’individu à la communauté. C’est dans cette même perspective qu’il a abordé le projet pour la commémoration du 70e anniversaire de la Déclaration universelle des droits de l’homme. Si la forme proposée n’est pas à proprement parler photographique, elle procède de l’impression d’un jeu d’ombres et de lumières sur un support : l’esplanade du Trocadéro, lieu emblématique de Paris, photographiée des milliers de fois par jour, est ici mis au noir. Tous les jours, de la tombée de la nuit à l’aube, sur la place rendue à la pénombre de la nuit, est projeté au sol un cercle lumineux dont la couleur, le diamètre et l’emplacement varient. D’abord de la largeur d’un homme, il balaie lentement la place tout en s’élargissant et s’empourprant graduellement selon un spectre ocre jaune, orangé presque rouge.
Une composition sonore, réalisée avec la collaboration du compositeur Teho Teardo, accompagne le ballet de ce disque de lumière au sol et invite les visiteurs à rejoindre l’espace à l’intérieur du cercle. La lumière devient objet d’interaction avec le public, l’engageant à se prendre au jeu de cette forme vivante et à en accompagner les pulsations, chacun à son rythme, ensemble dans le cercle. L’installation est réalisée grâce au partenariat avec Athem.

WILDER MANN at PHOTOfolies, RODEZ

06 October 2018 - 27 October 2018

Galerie Saint Catherine

5 place Sainte-Catherine 12000 Rodez
France

Exposition ouverte du mardi au samedi de 13h30 à 18h
Entrée libre

Visite commentée donnée par Charles Fréger aura lieu le vendredi 12 octobre à 18h30, à la galerie.
Galerie Saint Catherine
5 place Sainte-Catherine – 12000 Rodez

05 65 46 05 29
contact@aveyron-culture.com

www.aveyron-culture.com/saintecatherine

YOKAINOSHIMA at Photo Phnom Penh, Cambodia

05 October 2018 - 05 November 2018

Ambassade de France

1 Preah Monivong Blvd Preah Monivong Blvd (93), Phnom Penh 12201 12201 Phnom Penh
Cambodia

ទីក្រុង Yokainoshima ២០១៣ ដល់ ២០១៥

After completing the European Tour of Winter Masquerades (Wilder Mann) in 2013, Charles Fréger began exploring the ritual masked figures of Japan. He knew the country for photographing its sumo wrestlers (Rikishi, 2002-2003), and discovered, for this project, its rural areas. He traveled in the islands as well as inland and made an inventory of the masked figures, revealing the empathic relationship of the Japanese with their environment and their extreme awareness of nature’s vitality. In this series, the photographer continues his work at the crossroads of documentary, concept and ethnology.

Born in 1975 in Bourges, he studied at the High School of Art and Design of Le Havre-Rouen where he graduated. There, he began photographing in series and discovered his interest for uniforms by snapping portraits of sailors on call: “I was already working on seriality. In the uniform, there was something conceptual, cold, that I liked.” Charles Fréger published numerous books on his various series and his work has been showcased in numerous galleries and museums.

http://www.charlesfreger.com/

បន្ទាប់ពីបានបញ្ចប់ដំណើរកំសាន្ដនៅអឺរ៉ុបក្នុងរដូវរងាឆ្នាំ២០១៣កន្លងមក អ្នកថតរូបម្នាក់នេះបានចាប់ផ្ដើមរុករកនូវរបំាប្រពៃណីពាក់របំាងមុខរបស់ជប៉ុន។ គាត់បានស្គាល់ប្រទេសនេះ ដោយការថតរូបកីឡាចំបាប់ស៊ូម៉ូ (Rikishi, ឆ្នាំ២០០២-២០០៣) ហើយបានសែ្វងគម្រោងមួយនេះ នៅតាមតំបន់ជនបទ។ គាត់បានធ្វើដំណើរទៅតំបន់កោះ ក៏ដូចជាតំបន់ដែលដាច់ឆ្ងាយពីសមុទ្រ និងកន្លែងដែលប្រមូលផ្ដុំដោយក្រុមរបាំពាក់មុខ ដែលកន្លែងទាំងនេះបានបង្ហាញពីទំនាក់ទំនងរបស់ជនជាតិជប៉ុនជាមួយនឹងបរិស្ថានធម្មជាតិ ព្រមទាំងការយល់ដឹងអំពីសារសំខាន់នៃធម្មជាតិ។ នៅក្នុងស៊េរីរូបថតនេះ អ្នកថតរូបបានបន្ដការងាររបស់គាត់ដោយការដាក់បញ្ចូលគ្នារវាងឯកសារ គំនិត និងជាតិពន្ធុ។
លោកឆាល ហ្វ្រេជើ កើតនៅឆ្នាំ១៩៧៥ នៅទីក្រុងBourges គាត់ជាអតីតសិស្សដែលបានបញ្ចប់ការសិក្សា នៅវិទ្យាល័យសិល្បៈ និងរចនានៅ Le Havre-Rouen ។ កន្លែងនោះហើយដែលគាត់បានចាប់ផ្ដើមថតរូប បែបស៊េរី ហើយបានរកឃើញចំណាប់អារម្មណ៍របស់គាត់ លើការថតរូបស្លៀកពាក់ជាឯកសណ្ឋានតាមរយៈទម្រង់រូបភាពបញ្ឈររបស់នាវិកម្នាក់ ហើយលោកបាននិយាយថា «ខ្ញុំបានត្រៀមខ្លួនរួចរាល់ហើយសម្រាប់ថតរូបស៊េរី។ នៅក្នុងឯកសណ្ឋាននេះ វាបានបង្កប់នូវគំនិតផ្សេងៗ ឡូយ ដែលធ្វើឲ្យខ្ញុំចូលចិត្ដ»។
លោកឆាល បានបោះពុម្ពសៀវភៅរូបថតស៊េរីរបស់លោកពីមុនជាច្រើនក្បាល និងបានតាំងពិព័រណ៍នៅតាមវិចិត្រសាល និងសារមន្ទីរផ្សេងៗជាច្រើន។

SCHOOL CHALO at FESTIVAL IMAGES VEVEY

08 September 2018 - 30 September 2018

Image vevey

Rue Louis-Meyer 4 Vevey
Switzerland

The School Chalo project is based around a dozen schools in New Delhi. For this series, Charles Fréger has produced group portraits with an original outlook on the surprising means of transport the children used every day to go to school. As usual, the photographer asks his subjects to pose and pays particular attention to their posture as well as the background. The schoolchildren parade in front of his lens, aboard a rickshaw, a motorbike or a simple bicycle. Displayed in a primary school playground, the pictures of these Indian schoolchildren show the youngest visitors some extraordinary ways of getting to school.

https://www.images.ch/fr/festival/programmation/artistes/charles-freger/

YOKAINOSHIMA, Esprits du Japon

07 July 2018 - 30 August 2019

Musée des Confluences

86 Quai Perrache 69002 Lyon
France

Exposition temporaire, à partir du 7 juillet 2018

Au Japon, divinités et êtres surnaturels sont omniprésents. Tout au long de l’année, lors des rites masqués, le port de costumes permet de les invoquer pour demander protection, richesse et bonheur. L’exposition trace un lien entre les photographies contemporaines de Charles Fréger, qui donnent à voir un grand nombre de figures masquées rituelles, et les collections japonaises du musée.

Laissez-vous guider dans cette île aux esprits, depuis les fondements des spiritualités japonaises jusqu’aux pratiques actuelles comme le manga, le cosplay ou le jeu vidéo.

Cette exposition s’inscrit dans le cadre des commémorations franco-japonaises et du programme associé « Japonismes 2018 ».
En partenariat avec Les inrockuptibles, Museum TV, Paris Match et Spot.

Musée de la Castre Cannes, YOKAINOSHIMA.

24 June 2018 - 10 October 2018

Musée de la Castre

Le Suquet 06400 Cannes
France

Chefs-d’œuvre de l’Institut Lussato-Fédier & Yokainoshima, figures masquées du Japon.
Photographies de Charles Fréger

Conçue en partenariat avec l’Institut Lussato-Fédier (Bruxelles), l’exposition met en valeur la virtuosité des maîtres artisans du Japon, à travers quarante chefs d’œuvre datant du XVe siècle à nos jours, inspirés par la culture lettrée, les croyances et les traditions populaires.
Un second volet révèle l’univers coloré et magique des fêtes rurales japonaises, grâce au regard insolite du photographe Charles Fréger.

Exposition à l’occasion de la manifestation « Japonismes 2018 », qui célèbre le 160e anniversaire des relations diplomatiques entre la France et le Japon.

MUSEE DES MARAIS SALANTS, BATZ-SUR-MER

17 June 2018 - 30 September 2018

Musée des Marais salants

Place Adèle Pichon 44740 Batz-sur-Mer
France

Le Musée des marais salants vous convie à voir ou revoir Bretonnes, exposition photographique de l’artiste Charles Fréger, fruit d’une résidence au Centre d’art GwinZegal de Guingamp. Cette présentation de 43 portraits accorde une place de choix à la série guérandaise des métayères et paludières.

Exclusivement féminine, Bretonnes se découvre comme un inventaire poétique, une enquête sensible conduite auprès de tous les cercles celtiques de Bretagne. L’artiste explore avec délicatesse et élégance l’univers du costume traditionnel breton à travers le prisme d’un des éléments iconographique et identitaire les plus forts : la coiffe.

Loin de constituer une évocation nostalgique de traditions pluriséculaires, la photographie de Charles Fréger témoigne d’une culture régionale contemporaine et vivante. Mieux, plaçant la femme bretonne en figure de proue de ses images, l’artiste suggère la fierté qu’elle a de son histoire pour se tourner résolument vers l’avenir.

YOKAINOSHIMA at L’ARTHOTEQUE DE CAEN

06 April 2018 - 09 June 2018

Arthoteque de Caen

Palais Ducal, Impasse Duc Rollon 14000 Caen
France

Attentive au travail du photographe Charles Fréger depuis le début des années 2000, l’Artothèque l’a exposé en deux occasions et acquis plusieurs de ses photographies qui ne cessent de circuler, touchant un large public.
Ce printemps, c’est avec son dernier opus, Yokainoshima, qu’il revient à l’Artothèque. Après avoir œuvré pendant plus de quinze ans selon un protocole photographique précis impliquant cadrages centrés et souvent frontaux, voici qu’il se dirige, depuis sa série Wilder Mann et ses mascarades hivernales européennes, vers une manière plus théâtrale. Avec Yokainoshima il poursuit, cette fois sur l’archipel nippon, l’exploration de traditions masquées, déployant silhouette après silhouette une vertigineuse suite de formes, de couleurs et de matières. Au travers de ces mises en scène minutieusement élaborées, un Japon rural, méconnu, se révèle. Le corpus de photographies constitué par son auteur au cours des trois années de sa campagne photographique met au jour un territoire fantasmagorique : Yokainoshima, l’île aux monstres.

WILDER MANN in “INNER OUTFIT”

16 February 2018 - 07 March 2018

Hellenic American Union, − John F. Kennedy Gallery

22, Massalias Str 10680 Athens
Greece

Α product of collaboration between three curators, Louisa Karapidaki, Cleopatra Fatourou and Elisabeth Romberg, the visual arts exhibition entitled “INNER OUTFITS”, features works by artists from Greece, Norway, Sweden and France.

Every day we are all called upon to fight several different battles, both against society and against ourselves. The curators of the exhibition asked participating artists to reflect on what it is that affects each one of them the most, as well as how they believe they can cope with it, armoring themselves against the erosion and pain that it may be causing them. Thus, the artists created their own personal “armors,” their own defensive techniques, which they are presenting to the public as a reference to the attacks we all sustain on a daily basis by the violence that surrounds us but also to the inner war each one of us experiences when confronted with his or her personal fears and shortcomings.

As part of the exhibition, organized by the Hellenic American Union and Hellenic American College (HAEC) in cooperation with Hellenic American University (Nashua, NH, USA), performances by Kleoni Manoussaki and Christina Foitou will also be presented.

www.hau.gr culture@hau.gr
+30 210 3680052

FABULA at Armani-Silos, Milan, Italy

12 January 2018 - 24 March 2019

Armani Silos

Via Bergognone, 40 20144 Milano
Italy

In around twenty years Charles Fréger, French photographer, born in 1975, has created intense and idiosyncratic work, almost encyclopaedic in its scope.

The extensive body of photographs built up by the artist to date testifies to his inexorable quest to reach out to communities that are either sporting, military, festive or educational, to consider the individuals who are a part of them and to identify the links, rituals and practices that unite them. Charles Fréger is interested in the body and clothing of each of these groups as an ambivalent terrain, where the pose reveals a dreamed-of identity, where the clothing, albeit a uniform, sees its formality put to the test by flip adolescence. There, then, is the image he wants.

For a long time gathered under the generic title of Portraits photographiques et uniformes, the work initially proved to be the heir to a certain Nordic tradition. With the addition of performances and videos it has evolved to reach finally a fundamentally theatrical dimension, and is appreciably baroque in places.

Distancing himself from the portraits he had previously produced, Charles Fréger has been focusing for several years on the silhouette and its potential for expression. Faces and bodies gradually disappear, some hidden behind masks and make-up, others under costumes that gain in complexity and volume.

The Fabula exhibition retraces the key stages of this theatrical and symbolic shift in the form of a retrospective that puts together extracts from some twenty series produced between 1999 and 2018, in Europe, America, Asia and Africa.

WILDER MANN AT MUSEE DR GUISLAIN, GENT

11 November 2017 - 27 May 2018

Musee Dr Guislain

Jozef Guislainstraat 43 9000 Gent
Belgium

errorist attacks, nuclear threats, blinding political tensions: fear rules the world, but also our lives. What is our money still worth? How will climate change determine our future? Fear is an instinctive emotion and largely determines our actions. In response, we are seeking control as something to hold on to: lack of control makes us feel powerless. On the other hand, too much control makes us feel uneasy and suspicious. Do we want to be spied on by security cameras? Is our data safe on the internet? Fear has a strong impact on everyone: it spreads like wildfire. How do psychiatrists and psychologists deal with this fear that is omnipresent? They seek methods of treatment, from therapeutic talks to deep brain stimulation. Or are we in fact attracted by fear – when it is packaged as entertainment – and does it protect us against impending doom – as a survival mechanism?

The exhibition Anxiety wants to show the many faces of this emotion, since fear is something of all times and cultures but has always been experienced, cultivated and combatted in a different way. From ‘God-fearing’ to fear of one’s fellow man, from highly personal phobia to mass hysteria.

PATTES BLANCHES in PAYSAGES FRANCAIS (BNF)

24 October 2017 - 04 February 2018

Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF), site François Mitterand

Quai François Mauriac 75706 Paris
France

http://expositions.bnf.fr/paysages-francais/index-en.php” title=”Paysage francais BNF site”>

WILDER MANN in NANTES

15 September 2017 - 01 October 2017

Château des ducs de Bretagne

Place Marc Elder 44000 Nantes
France

Good time to meet each other the 15th and 16th… Signature of the book the 16th of September at La librairie Vent d’Ouest.

Power mask

01 September 2017 - 18 March 2018

Wereld Museum

Willemskade 25 3016 DM Rotterdam
Netherlands

On 1 September 2017 the exhibition POWERMASK, curated by Walter van Beirendonck, opens at the Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam. The Wereldmuseum is giving the Antwerp fashion designer a free hand this autumn to present his own unique, multi-faceted vision of the phenomenon of masks.

Cheerful and idiosyncratic
Van Beirendonck selected over 125 masks from the Wereldmuseum’s large collection, to which he added masked costumes and fashion silhouettes. The main components of the diverse galleries are exhibits of photography and fine art. The design is colourful, cheerful and idiosyncratic – like Van Beirendonck’s fashions. The walls are taken up by installations by the contemporary artists Brian Kenny (b. 1982), Coco Fronsac (b. 1962), and Charles Fréger (b. 1975), which are combined with a variety of masks from Africa, Oceania, Europe, and America. In addition, historical and present-day film material gives a lively picture of the ways in which masks were originally worn by men and women and of their role in rituals.
Publication
The exhibition is accompanied by the richly-illustrated book POWERMASK: The Power of Masks’, Dutch edition ISBN 9789401443180 and English edition ISBN 9798401442954; Lannoo Publishers (on sale for €39.99 at the museum shop) .

photo: Aad Hoogendoorn

SCHOOL CHALO at VOYAGE ORDINAIRE

26 July 2017 - 06 October 2017

Galerie des Franciscains

25, rue du Croisic 44600 Saint-Nazaire
France

Chaque jour, partout dans le monde, des voyageurs ordinaires se déplacent à pied, à vélo, à moto, en auto, en métro, en rickshaw… Ils ont inspiré quatre photographes et un écrivain qui interrogent la notion de « voyage ordinaire ». Charles Fréger poursuit son inventaire des groupes sociaux et religieux en photographiant les rickshaws scolaires de New Delhi. Ambroise Tézenas trace la route entre Bangalore et Bombay dont il fait émerger l’ordinaire beauté. Denis Dailleux révèle la banlieue chaotique du Caire avec sa série de « portraits au tuktuk ». Jérôme Blin dessine un Saint-Nazaire nocturne et mystérieux entre docks et lotissements. Quant à Christian Garcin, il nous transporte dans les rues de Jaipur où il fait d’étranges rencontres… Bienvenue dans leur voyage ordinaire !

BRETONNES, Festival des Hautes Terres

19 June 2017 - 03 September 2017

Maison des Associations

Place René Amarger 15100 Saint-Flour
France

Avec cet inventaire unique et poétique, Charles Fréger nous invite à plonger à corps perdu dans la dentelle des coiffes traditionnelles bretonnes. Il orchestre ces images, portraits et scènes de genre
comme des cartes postales d’entre-deux guerres ou des peintures réalistes du XIXe s.

Les modèles coiffés de coton amidonné et de dentelles, tirés à quatre épingles, posent sur le flan d’une église de campagne ou sur un plateau venteux de bord de mer, parfois dans une brume cotonneuse, nous livrant ainsi une réflexion sur l’héritage culturel
et l’appartenance à une communauté, un territoire… Un beau voyage contre vents et marées à découvrir tout l’été.

Tous les jours de 10h à 12h30 et de 14h30 à 19h sauf le lundi.

Naarden foto festival

20 May 2017 - 18 June 2017

de Grote Kerk

Marktstraat 13 1411 CX Naarden
Netherlands

Duivels, beermensen, sjamanen met geweien: in veel Europese landen komen monsters en hybride kruisingen van mensen en dieren voor. Ze stammen vaak uit oude heidense rituelen die verbonden zijn aan dood en geboorte, de oogst en de seizoenen. De Franse fotograaf Charles Fréger legt ze al geruime tijd vast: een grote selectie van zijn ‘wilde mannen’ is dit jaar in Naarden te zien.

Charles Fréger (1975) reisde door achttien Europese landen op zoek naar oude heidense rituelen waarvoor de uitvoerders zich verkleden als beer of geit, als stroman of touwvogel, als bladerwezens of harlekijn. Zijn werk houdt het midden tussen een antropologische studie en een theaterenscenering. Soms is de acteur door zijn kostuum geheel aan het zicht onttrokken, soms lijkt hij even te pauzeren met een sigaretje. Maar de wilde mannen blijven onderdeel van een ritueel, en dat vergt een serieuze en zorgvuldige uitvoering.

Biennale Socle du Monde

21 April 2017 - 27 August 2017

Carl-Henning Pedersen og Else Alfelts Museum

Birk Centerpark 8 7400 Henning
Denmark

Wilder Mann is now exhibited at the Carl-Henning Pedersen og Else Alfelts Museum in the Chapter “The eye in the Mask”.

The exhibition The Eye in the Mask juxtaposes a range of ethnographic masks with works of art by the two Danish CoBrA artists Carl-Henning Pedersen and Asger Jorn, African CoBrA artist Ernest Mancoba and several international contemporary artists: Romuald Hazoumé (Benin), Shen Yuan (China), Charles Fréger (France) and Antony Gormley (Great Britain). The Eye in the Mask spans 2000 m2, taking up the entire museum and spilling out into its environs.

The main focus of the exhibition falls on masks and identity. This encompasses physical masks, as shown by means of ethnographic objects used for rituals and dances, making the function of masks very tangible: putting a mask on allows you to become someone else. But it also concerns the use of various mask motifs in art – many artists of the past and present have been inspired by the identity-changing potential of the mask: covering your face allows you to escape the human condition, replace your physical vessel with another, clothing yourself in the guise of a divine or animal being. The mask confers strength, power and abilities far beyond those of ordinary mortals. Hence, the mask is a tool that lets you change your identity.

WILDER MANN at ARCADE

11 March 2017 - 30 April 2017

ARCADE

4 rue des Grangeots 21350 Sainte-Colombe-en-Auxois
France

Yokainoshima

09 March 2017 - 27 May 2017

Le parvis

Parvis - Espace Culturel Avenue Louis Sallenave C.C. Leclerc Tempo Pau
France

En 2013, son tour d’Europe des mascarades hivernales (Wilder Mann) tout juste achevé, Charles Fréger entreprend une campagne photographique explorant les figures masquées rituelles du Japon.

S’il connaissait déjà le pays pour avoir notamment photographié ses lutteurs de sumo (Rikishi, 2002-2003), il ignorait tout de son monde rural. C’est là le sujet de Yokainoshima : par l’inventaire de ces figures masquées, peindre le visage des campagnes japonaises, des traditions qui rythment la vie des habitants et de la terre qu’ils foulent et travaillent.
Au cours de ses cinq voyages, le photographe parcourt de nombreuses régions, tant dans les terres que dans les îles, et fait l’expérience du relief si particulier du Japon, de son étendue et des phénomènes naturels qui le secouent à échéance régulière. Cette exploration extensive de l’archipel lui permet d’appréhender de manière sensible la raison de cette relation empathique des Japonais à leur environnement et leur extrême conscience de la vitalité de la nature.
Yokai, oni, tengu et kappa, que l’on pourrait définir comme spectres, monstres, ogres et farfadets, sont autant d’incarnations de ces figures rituelles imaginées par l’homme et incarnées lors de festivals et cérémonies pour tenter d’apprivoiser les éléments et de donner sens aux évènements naturels.
Cette série photographique présente au regard et à la connaissance une variété de formes existantes sur le territoire japonais, remplissant là sans conteste un objectif documentaire. Pourtant, Charles Fréger ne recherche pas plus le réalisme des situations qu’il ne vise à l’exhaustivité. Le portrait réalisé de son sujet est évidemment partiel et partial. Hérons, cerfs, ogres, démons et autres figures d’un bestiaire nippon sont présentes hors des festivités, évoluant dans les rizières, les champs ou les flots.

La Suite basque/ Gernika

04 March 2017 - 22 May 2017

musée unterlinden

1 Rue des Unterlinden 68000 Colmar
France

L’exposition Charles Fréger Gernika / La Suite Basque sera présentée dans l’espace de la Piscine du 4 mars au 22 mai.
« Gernika est une ville, la capitale symbolique des Basques. Guernica est un tableau, la grande fresque de Picasso. Le 26 avril 1937, la légion Condor envoyée par Hitler en soutien à Franco bombarde la ville. Picasso peint sa toile sous le choc, en réponse à une commande du gouvernement espagnol républicain. » (Marie Darieussecq)
Le point de départ de ce projet est une invitation par la structure d’art contemporain COOP du photographe Charles Fréger en résidence de création au Pays Basque, en 2015. Il a ainsi exploré le patrimoine immatériel basque pendant un an. Avec les membres du groupe de commémoration Gernika-Lumo, qui rejouent année après année l’événement, le photographe a ainsi reconstruit une frise de neuf scènes évoquant les figures du tableau de Picasso. L’exposition est née de cette recherche.
Le Musée Unterlinden qui expose l’un des trois exemplaires de la tapisserie Guernica, dont le carton a été réalisé en 1955 par Jacqueline La Baume Dürrbach à la demande de Picasso, accueille ainsi pour l’anniversaire du bombardement de Guernica cet ensemble de photographies de Charles Fréger.

L’épopée de Jeanne d’Arc

19 January 2017 - 19 February 2017

Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen

esplanade marcel duchamp 76000 ROUEN
France

La suite basque

17 November 2016 - 05 February 2017

Musée basque

37 Quai des Corsaires Bayonne
France

#lasuitebasque
#associationcoop
#euskalmuseoa

Carnaval Wereldwijd

12 November 2016 - 26 March 2017

afrika museum

Postweg 6 6571 Berg en Dal
Netherlands

https://afrikamuseum.nl/nl/tentoonstelling/Carnaval

WILDER MANN and MARDI GRAS INDIANS at the Afrika museum of Berg en Dal, Netherlands, in a larger show about Carnival.

YOKAINOSHIMA

15 September 2016 - 25 October 2016

Espace Malraux, Scene Nationale

Place du Manège 73000 Chambery
France

YOKAINOSHIMA at Les Rencontres photographiques d’Arles

04 July 2016 - 28 August 2016

Les trinitaires

rue de la république Arles
France

FABULA at the Photographic center of Clermont-Ferrand

22 June 2016 - 24 September 2016

Hotel Fontfreyde

34 rue des gras 63000 Clermont-Ferrand
France

L’OEIL DE L’EXPERT at MUSEE NIEPCE

18 June 2016 - 18 September 2016

Musée Niepce

28 Quai des Messageries 71100 Chalon-sur-Saône
France

Seuls/ensembles

23 April 2016 - 25 September 2016

Arthoteque de Caen

Palais Ducal, Impasse Duc Rollon 14000 Caen
France

SEULS / ENSEMBLE
Le portrait à l’œuvre dans l’art contemporain

Collective exhibition

Dans le cadre du Festival Normandie Impressionniste 2016

BRETONNES at Musée des beaux-arts et de la dentelle, Alençon, FRANCE

08 March 2016 - 22 May 2016

Musée des beaux-arts et de la dentelle d’Alençon

Cour Carrée de la Dentelle 61000 Alençon
France

With Different Eyes – SK STIFTUNG, Cologne, Germany

26 February 2016 - 29 May 2016

Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur

Im Mediapark 7 50670 Köln Tel.: 0221-88895300 photographie@sk-kultur.de 50670 Köln
Germany

(…) Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur in Cologne focuses on serial portraits that follow an artistic-documentary approach. The institution with its August Sander Archive and its central position in the field of documentary photography thus follows up on its programmatic orientation. On the one hand, the exhibition includes portraits from the institution’s own collection on the basis of the premise “A Look at the Collection” on the other hand they invited nine photographers from four continents to contribute extracts from their work. Both parts of the exhibition present an exciting approach to the genre of the portrait. Merely typological pictures alternate with narrative portraits, the static picture with the moving picture. It constantly becomes apparent how August Sander has had an international impact both methodically and in regard to content and how he has influenced portrait photography as a source of inspiration.

YOKAINOSHIMA at LE FORUM, HERMES, TOKYO

16 February 2016 - 15 May 2016

Le forum, Hermès

5-4-1 Ginza - Chuo-ku Tokyo
Japan

Charles Fréger

Yokainoshima
The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès continues its partnership with photographer Charles Fréger, as the producer of his latest photographic series, Yokainoshima. Dozens of masked creatures endowed with symbolic attributes make up an endlessly inventive bestiary drawn from Japanese folk culture for this show at Le Forum, Tokyo.

In Japan, strange creatures come down from the mountain at New Year, to deliver a message to the people below, and frighten their children: these are the Toshigami, also known as Namahage in Akita province, or Suneka in Iwate. Part of a thriving, perennial folklore tradition, the spirit beings appear in different guises from one region to another. French photographer Charles Fréger went to meet these proteiform creatures face to face, as the central focus of his series Yokainoshima.

The exhibition title is a neologism meaning ‘island of monsters’. The show features a host of photographs, in a variety of formats. This fascinating mosaic of portraits testifies to the extensive research carried out by Fréger over two years, with the help of the exhibition’s curator, Reiko Setsuda. Working with a Japanese assistant, Fréger journeyed the length of Japan, from north to south, photographing yokai, oni or Toshigami figures and others associated with rituals intended to ensure a fertile harvest, and to chase away evil spirits.

As a counterpoint to Fréger’s Wilder Mann series, devoted to ‘wild’ figures from European folk culture, Yokainoshima presents the subjects in staged poses and settings evoking the rugged landscapes of Japan. The setting for the yokai, by young architect Jumpei Matsushima, emphasises their colourful costumes still further.

Bretonnes at MEM Gallery, Tokyo

10 February 2016 - 13 March 2016

MEM inc

NADiff A/P/A/R/T 2F, 1-18-4 Ebisu, Shibuya-ku 150-0013 Tokyo
Japan

Including a conference with Chihiro Minato at MEM gallery, the 20th of February.

Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie

16 January 2016 - 20 February 2016

Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie

24 rue sainte croix de la bretonnerie 75004 Paris
France

MASK!

23 December 2015

Belfast exposed

The Exchange Place 23 Donegall Street BT1 2FF Belfast
United Kingdom

WILDER MANN at Photoluxfestival, LUCCA, Italia

21 November 2015 - 13 December 2015

photolux , Chiesa dei Servi

Piazza de' Servi Lucca
Italy

Mardi gras indians at Lianzhou Foto Festival

21 November 2015 - 10 December 2015

Lianzhou Foto Festival

Lianzhou Lianzhou
China

Curated by François Cheval (Musée Nicephore Niepce, Chalon-sur-Saône, France)

Chapelle des calvairiennes, La Chapelle Fifteen

14 November 2015 - 13 December 2015

Chapelle des calvairiennes

Place Juhel 53100 Mayenne
France

WILDER MANN in BAKEMONO exhibition

01 August 2015 - 13 September 2015

Aomori museum of art

185 Chikano, Yasuta, Aomori. Shin-Aomori Stn. Aomori
Japan

30 images of the WILDER MANN series in the BAKEMONO exhibition.
www.aomori-museum.jp/en
“Bakemono” is a Japanese term to describe imaginary monsters, which in Japan have a long history in religion and culture. Traditional festivals, for example, feature creatures such as namahage demons, as well as rituals, including shishi-mai lion dancing, and the love of monsters continues today with entertainment such as “Yokai Watch,” a TV series of ghouls and goblins that is becoming increasingly popular with kids.
This exhibition explores not just Japan’s bakemono, but also those in other countries. Illustrations, sculptures, masks and more offer some insight into bizarre creatures across the world. Highlights include a number of original copies of bakemono ukiyo-e prints by Kyosai Kawanabe and Yoshifuji Utagawa, who created the images with a juvenile audience in mind.

Catalogue Available, SEIGENSHA publisher. in Japanese. Excellent!!!

WILDER MANN

12 June 2015 - 01 November 2015

Pôle International de la Préhistoire

30, rue du Moulin 24620 Les Eyzies-de-Tayac
France

BRETONNES, FOUR EXHIBITIONS (SAINT BRIEUC)

06 June 2015 - 27 September 2015

Musée d’Art et d’histoire

rue des lycéens martyrs 22000 Saint Brieuc
France

BRETONNES, FOUR EXHIBITIONS (GUINGAMP)

06 June 2015 - 27 September 2015

Centre photographique Gwinzegal

3 rue Auguste Pavie 22200 Guingamp
France

Guingamp : Centre d’Art Gwinzegal. « Bretonnes et autres séries » : 35 portraits grand format issus de « Bretonnes », accompagnés d’extraits de séries précédentes réalisées par Charles Fréger. De samedi 6 Juin au 27 septembre. Gratuit.

www.gwinzegal.com

BRETONNES, FOUR EXHIBITIONS (PONT l’ABBE)

05 June 2015 - 31 October 2015

Musée Bigouden

Square de l'Europe 29120 Pont-l'Abbé
France

http://www.ville-pontlabbe.fr/musee/

BRETONNES, FOUR EXHIBITIONS (RENNES)

03 June 2015 - 31 October 2015

musee “Les champs libres”

10 Cours des Alliés 35000 Rennes
France

4 simultaneous shows in 4 museums and art centers around the Bretonnes series.

Rennes : Musée de Bretagne-Les Champs Libres. « Bretonnes, photographies de Charles Fréger ». 70 oeuvres de différents formats sont visibles dans une exposition montrant aussi des coiffes issues des collections du musée. La scénographie intègre des documents audiovisuels. De samedi au 30 août. +7 ans : 3/5 €.

L’esprit des Bêtes

29 May 2015 - 01 November 2015

Musée de l’image d’Epinal

42 Quai de Dogneville 88000 Epinal
France

Florafona society, Gallery Factory, Seoul

07 May 2015 - 21 June 2015

Gallery Factory

Jahamun-ro 10-gil, 15 Jongno-gu 110-034 Seoul
South Korea

« Chercher le garçon »

07 March 2015 - 30 August 2015

Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne

Place de la Libération 94400 Vitry-sur-Seine
France

Curated by Franck Lamy

Galleria del Cembalo di Roma

05 February 2015 - 28 March 2015

Galleria del Cembalo

Palazzo Borghese Largo della Fontanella di Borghese, 19 00186 Roma
Italy

http://www.galleriadelcembalo.it/ita/

ZONA MACO. MÉXICO ARTE CONTEMPO RÁNEO Art fair

04 February 2015 - 08 February 2015

ZONA MACO. MÉXICO ARTE CONTEMPO RÁNEO Art fair

CENTRO BANAMEX / HALL D. Mexico
Mexico

Paris photo fair, Galerie Kicken Berlin (C23)

12 November 2014 - 16 November 2014

Paris photo fair

Grand Palais Paris
France

Wilder Mann

17 October 2014 - 17 December 2014

Le Kiosque

7 place Juhel 53104 Mayenne
France

www.kiosque-mayenne.org

Wilder Mann

02 October 2014 - 20 December 2014

Espace Malraux, Scene Nationale

Place du Manège 73000 Chambery
France

www.espacemalraux-chambery.fr

Les Français photographient la Chine

15 August 2014 - 07 September 2014

Yachang Art Gallery

Caitian Rd, Futian Shenzhen
China

Wilder Mann

18 July 2014 - 12 September 2014

Musée basque

37 Quai des Corsaires Bayonne
France

Second Life*

14 June 2014 - 31 August 2014

Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft

715 West Main Street 40202 Louisville
United States

Collective exhibition. Wilder Mann series.

www.kmacmuseum.org

In/human

11 June 2014 - 02 November 2014

MUSEO DE ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO DE MONTERREY

Zuazua y Jardón S/N, Centro. Monterrey
Mexico

CONTREPLONGÉE, Festival Arts et Sports -Aquatique & Aérien

07 June 2014 - 24 August 2014

Le Colysée

avenue du Colysée 59130 Lambersart
France

Water-polo series

Group and surface

02 May 2014 - 29 August 2014

Kicken Berlin

Linienstraße 161a 10115 Berlin
Germany

Performing the Other

01 May 2014 - 01 June 2014

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art

952 Queen St W ON M6J 1G8 Toronto
Canada

“Performing the other”

01 May 2014 - 01 June 2014

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art

952 Queen M6J 1G8 toronto
Canada

Wilder Mann

03 April 2014 - 30 April 2014

La Chaufferie

5 rue de la Manufacture des Tabacs 67000 Strasbourg
France

Les français photographient la Chine

02 April 2014 - 28 April 2014

Today Museum, Beijing

Chaoyang, Baiziwan Rd, Chaoyang, Baiziwan Rd, 32号苹果社区4号楼 Beijing
China

Wilder Mann & Compagnie

23 November 2013 - 31 January 2014

Abbatiale Saint-Ouen

Place du Général de Gaulle 76000
France

www.poleimagehn.com

WILDER MANN, Athens photo festival

02 November 2013 - 20 November 2013

FIAC – Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie

24 October 2013 - 27 October 2013

Grand Palais

Avenue Winston Churchill 75008 Paris
France

Toulon Museum of Art

27 September 2013 - 17 November 2013

Toulon Museum of Art

113 Bd Mal-Leclerc 83000 Toulon
France

www.villanoailles-hyeres.com

Manish Arora Pop up store

24 September 2013 - 30 November 2013

Joyce Gallery

168 Galerie de Valois 75001 Paris
France

www.joyce.com

Musée Niepce

15 June 2013 - 15 September 2013

Musée Niepce

28 Quai des Messageries 71100 Chalon-sur-Saône
France

www.museeniepce.com

Open eye gallery

18 May 2013 - 25 August 2013

Open eye gallery

19 Mann Island Liverpool
England

www.openeye.org.uk

Fotokino

04 May 2013 - 26 May 2013

Fotokino

33 Allées Gambetta 13001 Marseille
France

www.fotokino.org

Hermes gallery

12 April 2013 - 08 June 2013

Hermes gallery

691 Madison Ave. 10065 New York
United States

Yossi Milo gallery

11 April 2013

Yossi Milo gallery

245 Tenth Ave. 10001 New York
United States

www.yossimilo.com

MAC/VAL

22 February 2013 - 15 May 2013

Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne

Place de la Libération 94400 Vitry-sur-Seine
France

www.macval.fr

FOMU

14 February 2013 - 09 June 2013

Fotomuseum Antwerpen

Waalsekaai 47 2000 Antwerpen
Belgium

www.fotomuseum.be

Image à Conviction

11 January 2013 - 11 March 2013

Palais curtius

Quai de Maestricht 13 4000 Liège
Belgium

www.grandcurtiusliege.be

Paris photo fair, Yossi Milo Gallery

15 November 2012 - 18 November 2012

Off festival, photo biennal Bratislava

02 November 2012 - 23 November 2012

FIAC artfair Paris, Kicken gallery

18 October 2012 - 21 October 2012

Le point du Jour, Centre d’Art, Cherbourg

23 September 2012 - 03 February 2013

TH13, Hermes gallery, Berne, Switzerland

14 September 2012 - 12 January 2013

Vasco Museum, Bilbao

14 March 2012 - 20 May 2012

Fotohof, Salzburg, Austria

11 December 2011 - 21 January 2012

Paris photo, MEM gallery

15 November 2011 - 18 November 2011

FIAC, Paris, Galerie Kicken

20 October 2011 - 23 October 2011

Frac Basse-Normandie, Caen

25 June 2011 - 30 September 2011

Bunkier Sztuki, Cracaw

13 May 2011 - 12 June 2011

ndian Art Summit

21 January 2011 - 23 January 2011

CRAC Alsace

10 October 2010 - 16 January 2011

Festival Planche contact, Deauville

07 October 2010 - 30 November 2010

Matthieu Foss Gallery, Mumba

05 October 2010 - 02 November 2010

Seoul Museum of Art

16 June 2010 - 15 August 2010

Art Amsterdam

26 May 2010 - 30 May 2010

Musée des terre-neuvas, Fécamp, France

21 May 2010 - 21 September 2010

Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag, Nederland

15 May 2010 - 23 June 2010

Madrid photo fair, Ego galeria

12 May 2010 - 16 May 2010

Fotodok festival, Utrecht

29 January 2010 - 28 February 2010

Maison des Arts, Evreux

21 October 2009 - 21 November 2009

Caption Gallery, New York

01 October 2009 - 25 November 2009

Berliner liste, Ego Galeria

23 September 2009 - 27 October 2009

Journées photographiques de Bienne

04 September 2009 - 27 September 2009

Kunshalle Wien, Austria

03 July 2009 - 20 October 2009

Dress code, ISELP, Brussels

08 May 2009 - 25 July 2009

Vienna fair, Momentum

07 May 2009 - 10 May 2009

Madrid photo fair

07 May 2009 - 10 May 2009

Galerie Momentum, Wien

29 April 2009 - 13 June 2009

“Hors jeu”, Espace culturel Francois Mitterand, Beauvais

18 April 2009 - 27 June 2009

Centre photographique de Cherbourg-Octeville

28 December 2008 - 22 February 2009

In fashion photo fair, Miami

03 December 2008 - 07 December 2008

Paris photo fair

13 November 2008 - 16 November 2008

Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul

30 October 2008 - 11 January 2009

Villa Noailles, Hyères, France

18 October 2008 - 19 October 2008

Atelier De Visu, Marseille

09 October 2008 - 28 November 2008

Galerie des filles du calvaire, Bruxelles

24 September 2008 - 15 November 2008

MEM gallery, Osaka

22 July 2008 - 12 August 2008

Rencontre international d’Arles

08 July 2008 - 14 September 2008

Parcours St Germain, Paris

29 May 2008 - 25 June 2008

Festival Transphotographiques, Lille

15 May 2008 - 29 June 2008

Muée des Beaux-Arts, St Lo, France

11 May 2008 - 15 June 2008

Art Bruxelles, Galeries des filles du Calvaire

18 April 2008 - 21 April 2008

Tokyo Artfair, MEM Gallery

03 April 2008 - 06 April 2008

Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag

03 April 2008 - 21 May 2008

Kasseler KunstVerein, Kassel

09 March 2008 - 29 June 2008

ARCO, Madrid. Galerie Kicken

13 February 2008 - 18 February 2008

Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai

27 January 2008 - 18 March 2008

Galerie Ronmandos, Amsterdam

08 September 2007 - 20 October 2007

Kunsthalle, Liestal (S)

25 August 2007 - 05 October 2007

Dorottya Galeria/Ernstmuseum, Budapest

08 July 2007

Galeries Les filles du Calvaire, Bruxelles

11 May 2007 - 14 July 2007

Art Amsterdam – Galerie Nouvelles Images

08 May 2007 - 12 May 2007

Art Chicago, Stephen Daiter Gallery

25 April 2007 - 28 April 2007

Tokyo Art fair, MEM Gallery

07 April 2007 - 08 April 2007

Centro Internazionale di Fotografia

05 April 2007 - 17 June 2007

Koninklijk Atheneum Berchem, Antwerpen

01 April 2007 - 15 April 2007

Galerie des filles du calvaire, Paris

25 March 2007 - 05 May 2007

POC Workshop at the Photomuseum of Antwerpen

01 March 2007 - 04 March 2007

Symposium at the Kyoto University of Art and Design

20 January 2007

Lecture at the School of Photographic Expression, Osaka

14 January 2007

Lecture at the Kyoto University of Art and Design

09 January 2007

Expo CLINIC, Pole image, Rouen

07 January 2007 - 03 March 2007

Art Basel, Miami beach (Kicken gallery)

07 December 2006 - 10 December 2006

Paris photo fair (Filles du Calvaire)

15 November 2006 - 19 November 2006

Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag

11 November 2006 - 13 December 2006

Museum of Modern Art (MUDAM) Luxembourg

03 July 2006 - 10 October 2006

POC show, Alone Together. Galerie Nouvelles Images, Den Haag

17 June 2006 - 23 July 2006

ART BASEL, Kicken Gallery

14 June 2006 - 18 June 2006

Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago

02 June 2006 - 27 July 2006

The Prague Contemporary Art Festival, Nova Sin

18 May 2006 - 26 June 2006

Kunsthalle, Erfurt, Germany

30 April 2006 - 25 June 2006

Art Brussel, Kicken Gallery

21 April 2006 - 24 April 2006

Aipad, NY, Kicken Gallery

08 February 2006 - 12 February 2006

Miami Art fair, Kicken Gallery

01 December 2005 - 04 December 2005

Paris photo fair, Galerie

16 November 2005 - 20 November 2005

Kicken gallery, Berlin

08 October 2005 - 14 December 2005

Kicken gallery, Berlin

23 September 2005 - 12 November 2005

Photo festival of Breda, Holland

20 September 2005 - 19 October 2005

www.bredaphoto.nl

ART BASEL, Kicken gallery

15 June 2005 - 20 June 2005

Museo nacional de artes visuales, Montevideo

26 May 2005 - 26 June 2005

Multipli Gallery, Roma

28 April 2005 - 18 May 2005

www.fotografiafestival.com

Fine Art Museum, Shanghai

17 April 2005 - 17 May 2005

Armory show

11 March 2005 - 14 March 2005

Kicken Gallery

. New York
United States