News

SCHOOL CHALO! LET’S GO TO SCHOOL!

31 August 2017

In Saint-Nazaire, Pays De La Loire, France, at the Galerie des Franciscains, you can visit the “VOYAGE ORDINAIRE” exhibition with the work of Ambroise Tézenas, Jérôme Blin, Denis Dailleux and myself. The show is organized by l’Art à l’ouest, in partnership with Abri Service and the city council of Saint Nazaire.
I’m showing the short “SCHOOL CHALO” (Let’s go to school) series, mainly produced in the very crowded streets of Chandni Chook Bazaar, New Delhi.

The Historical Epic of Joan of Arc

19 January 2017

The new series “L’épopée de Jeanne d’Arc” will be at the Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen from the 19th of january to the 19th of february
This “silhouettes” series directly connects with “La suite basque” (The exhibition is still at the Musée Basque et de l’histoire de Bayonne – Baionako Euskal Museoa until the 5th of february) and once again the semiologic questions around the historical representations in our collective educations. Read more…

New series and new show at the Basque Museum, in Bayonne

19 November 2016

“La suite basque” is now taking place in the historical town of Bayonne. Can I say that it’s probably my most experimental series which came same time with YOKAINOSHIMA and right after BRETONNES. Without the BRETONNES series, I would have never walked in this direction. It’s like if LA SUITE BASQUE was still made of the silhouettes of WILDER MANN, with its landscapes, but this time, the abstraction is holding a key on this work. There will be another silhouettes series exhibited soon, in Rouen, titled “L’épopée de Jeanne”. More soon.

This project following the invitation of Association COOP contains six photographic sequences titled: “Ainarak/Exiliados, Sorginak, Gernika, Irudi, La porte du Milieu”.

Texts by Marie Darrieussecq and introduction by Martine Sadion.

#lasuitebasque, ~#associationcoop, #charlesfreger, #euskalmuseoa

YOKAINOSHIMA at les Rencontres d’Arles

13 July 2016

After WILDER MANN, YOKAINOSHIMA is the second chapter of my research about rural masquerades in the world. The book came out last month in Japanese (Seigensha), English (Thames&Hudson), French (Actes Sud) and Italian (Peliti). It will take a few weeks before seeing the book in the good bookshops, and you can already find it online.
Read more…

YOKAINOSHIMA at FONDATION HERMES, TOKYO!

22 February 2016

Opening at Fondation d’entreprise Hermès,
Le Forum, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo.

A real good moment at the YOKAINOSHIMA show, curated by Reiko Setsuda with the help of the architect Jumpey Matsushima (JP, architect).
The show divided in two big rooms received a special scenography experimenting another way of showing this series.
It’s physical and pretty intuitive. A set of the WILDER MANN series is meeting for the first time the TOSHIGAMI of the YOKAINOSHIMA series…
Read more…

2016 with YOKAINOSHIMA

31 December 2015

Kasedori, Kaminoyama, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan…

YOKAINOSHIMA! The book will come out with Thames & Hudson​ (England),​ Seigensha, Japan and Actes Sud​, France in May.

A first show of the series, curated by Reiko Setsuda will take place at Le Forum, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès​ in Tokyo, Ginza, in February.

Wishing you a GREAT 2016.

Stay wild and peaceful.

Posters in the streets of Paris

30 September 2015

You may like to see some of these posters made for Manish Arora, the Indian fashion designer. A good connection with Manish. This was fun to do.

And things are going on. The BRETONNES finished last sunday and two WILDER MANN shows are still going on. But the main thing is the book I’m working on: YOKAINOSHIMA! A Japanese title for a place which doesn’t not exist – An island of monsters. This large series has been my biggest collection after Wilder Mann where you’ll discover a real fantasmagoric Nippon bestiary. Soon, some images to watch online.

WILDER MANN VS PREHISTORY

15 June 2015

Exhibition of WILDER MANN at Pôle international de la Préhistoire
(see: Centre d’accueil du Pôle International de la Préhistoire , in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil , in Dordogne. The Perigord Noir is the place to visit for the Grotte de Lascaux , and all the museums connected to the research about prehistoric age, Homme de Néandertal, and Cro-Magnon.
This new international center of prehistory (See www.pole-prehistoire.com) invited me to show WILDER MANN, questionning the invention of composite creature in paleolithic age. It would be of course a too easy shortcut to imagine that our masquerade traditions in Europe may have started at that time. I’m very interested by the populare and educative imagery produced in the 19th and 20th century about the prehistoric time and its uncomplete and indadequate Evolutionary chain (where the Homme de Néandertal was described as a hairy savage and idiot creature). We now know that our homo sapiens NDA contains as well 5% of Neanderthal genes… Once again, the old cliché of the prehistoric man being savage is still contained in our post-colonial popular imagery (Ask to your children how they imagine the “caveman”).
Our WILDER MANN, still, could anyway be an evolution of this representation, thru our European masquerades and traditions of our “supposed to be savage” prehistoric ancestors.
While looking at the beauty and delicate Rock painting of Les Grottes De Lascaux Prehistoric Cave and the Grotte Chauvet (discovered only a few years ago. 30000 years old!), there’s a big doubt about which one between our civilized and modern man and the Cro-magnon man is finally the real “savage”. Let’s stay dry and objective and leave these discussions to scientists.
This summer, come to visit the Périgord and say hello to the WILDER MANN at the Pôle international de la Préhistoire. Come to read the text of Jean Clottes and the introduction of Catherine Clément. This transversality at least open some reflexions and I’m glad that WILDER MANN takes part of this and avoid certain mystifications.