Agnès Varda, Autoportrait dans son studio rue Daguerre, Paris 14e, 1956 © Succession Agnès Varda
Musée Carnavalet, Paris, France
https://www.carnavalet.paris.fr/expositions/le-paris-dagnes-varda
The exhibition Le Paris d'Agnès Varda, de-ci, de-là takes a fresh look at the work of Agnès Varda (1928-2019).
It highlights the artist's little-known photographic work and reveals the key role played by the courtyard studio in the rue Daguerre (Paris 14th), a place where she lived and created from 1951 to 2019. More generally, it shows the importance of Paris in a free and abundant body of work that never gives way to the easy way out, and marvellously combines documentary and fiction.
After revealing Agnès Varda's first steps as a photographer, the tour takes visitors on an initial immersion into the courtyard-atelier, at a time when it was both a shooting studio and a laboratory for developing and printing, and the site of her first solo exhibition in 1954. The same courtyard is revisited in the 1960s, when Agnès Varda shared it with the film-maker Jacques Demy, and when it was frequented by leading figures from the film world after having welcomed theatre-goers.
The exhibition then presents a series of photographs that highlight the artist's quirky, humorous and strange view of the people and streets of Paris. The filmmaker's view of Paris is evoked in a chronothematic tour highlighting the films shot entirely in Paris, starting with Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962). The city is filmed in such a way as to be in unison with the feelings experienced by the young woman.
It highlights the artist's little-known photographic work and reveals the key role played by the courtyard studio in the rue Daguerre (Paris 14th), a place where she lived and created from 1951 to 2019. More generally, it shows the importance of Paris in a free and abundant body of work that never gives way to the easy way out, and marvellously combines documentary and fiction.
After revealing Agnès Varda's first steps as a photographer, the tour takes visitors on an initial immersion into the courtyard-atelier, at a time when it was both a shooting studio and a laboratory for developing and printing, and the site of her first solo exhibition in 1954. The same courtyard is revisited in the 1960s, when Agnès Varda shared it with the film-maker Jacques Demy, and when it was frequented by leading figures from the film world after having welcomed theatre-goers.
The exhibition then presents a series of photographs that highlight the artist's quirky, humorous and strange view of the people and streets of Paris. The filmmaker's view of Paris is evoked in a chronothematic tour highlighting the films shot entirely in Paris, starting with Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962). The city is filmed in such a way as to be in unison with the feelings experienced by the young woman.
The result of over two years' research, the exhibition is based primarily on Agnès Varda's photographic collection and the archives of Ciné-Tamaris. It compares the work of the photographer with that of the filmmaker through a collection of 130 prints, many of them previously unpublished, and extracts from films shot entirely or in part in Paris.
The exhibition also includes publications, documents, objects that once belonged to the artist, posters, photographs of filming and a sculpture of her cat Nini.
The exhibition also includes publications, documents, objects that once belonged to the artist, posters, photographs of filming and a sculpture of her cat Nini.
