Solo exhibition Stills in Motion | 10 Corso Como Shanghai – Gallery Carla Sozzani

Solo Exhibition of 30 Works by Marie Cecile Thijs
In cooperation with the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Shanghai

Statement by Chinese Curator Shi Hantao:

Marie Cecile Thijs’s portraits and still life photography are extremely rich in imagination, and full of vitality. Her photography is a nuanced look and depiction of ordinary people and everyday objects. She uses light with caution, bringing forward rich and heavy colors, thus creating an atmosphere that is more often seen in the still life paintings of the Northern Renaissance – a quiet and mysterious power, which is conceived and transcends everyday life. Of course, the Medieval and Renaissance still life paintings bore both moral and educational metaphors and functions. From the various representations of flowers (references to the Virgin Mary, virginity, faithfulness, and divine love), to the implied meanings of musical instruments, the hourglass, open books, skeletons and other elements (indicating time, transience, mortality), one can trace back the sources of Christian doctrine. Even though Thijs’ fresh fruits, vegetables and food are wrapped in a quiet and mysterious atmosphere of the whole, there is no religious dimension. What they bring to people is still nourishment and delight in a secular sense. Even more interesting is that the artist uses intelligent light to bring these objects to life, and at the same time, using a surrealistic approach, places them in the frame. We can see not only René Magritte’s iconic backs and domed hats, but also surrealist’s practices and elements such as juxtaposition, dislocation, floating, throughout the vast majority of works, and thus creating unexpected, irrational, and dreamy effects.

Whether it is surrealism, or the above-mentioned daily allusion to non-everyday feelings, these are part of the essential character of photography. From the Paris captured by Eugene Atget and Brassai, to the America of Walker Evens and William Eggleston, photography artists are often in the daily landscape to capture or construct a surrealistic image. Of course, Thijs however does not take to the streets. She is a studio artist using computers in a subtle way to expand her unique visual narrative. Her works let us see some of the new possibilities that can be practiced in today’s still life and portrait photography. In the past few decades, when a very clear distinction of subject and theoretical studies of the characteristics of photographs were implemented in the documentation, materiality, indexability, and the various natural and social fields of empirical function, we have not been concerned with the spiritual dimension of the picture itself for a long time. Although Walter Benjamin is considered to be the first to point out that the reproduction of photography made the aura of traditional art disappear, he also admitted that in some portrait photography as well as the early photography process, the photos still shine with a fascinating and hard-to-explain aura. Benjamin’s contradiction more or less reflects that there is a mysterious force beyond the process of the photographic reproduction. This can also be read in Andre Bazin’s “Ontology of the Photographic Image,” that is, people are obsessed with the kind of “automatic” process, as it seems to carry forces beyond nature.

Today, the advances in science and technology have allowed photography to be a process of constructing and manipulating the “real”, but our anticipation to see this mysterious power hidden in a picture has not diminished. What is so fascinating about Thijs’ work is that we see the existence of that power. While her subjects in these still life works should have been at rest, they are unwittingly arranged into a little nervous suspension or in a landing state; They seem to be static in the picture, but apparently are frozen in a moment of a dynamic process; They are in the beginning or end of a process of critical transition, or they are in a motion hidden in the stasis of an act we will not know. The fruits, vegetables, vases, or small animals, which are very beautiful in shape and color, are suddenly pushed into a marvelous situation, such as a fairy tale, giving the viewer both visual and spiritual pleasure. This is the inheritance of the surrealist spirit, which is entirely dependent on the intuitive visual narrative. It is also grounded in the experience of modern life – what is around us is occasional and accidental, worn down to blandness through our daily routines. Sybille Ebert-Schifferer once said in “Still Life: A History”, that each still life is emblematic of a specific time and place but carries a certain metaphysical perspective. Still life resides in a paradox: life is never still.

On November 17th, Marie Cecile Thijs: Stills in Motion will be presented in 10 Corso Como Shanghai. A must see exhibition for photography lovers. Come and experience the power of being still.

About 10 Corso Como
Launched in 1990 in Milan, Italy by Carla Sozzani, 10 Corso Como is a network of spaces rolled into one experience and was the world’s first concept store. It is dedicated to Art, Fashion, Music, Design and Cuisine and has been designed as a multifunctional area, where customers and visitors are encouraged to meet and exchange culture, ideas and experiences. Named after its location in Milan in an industrial building, today 10 Corso Como has locations in Milan, Seoul, Shanghai and Beijing.
Opening time for top-floor gallery: 10:00 a.m. – 22:00 p.m.

About Marie Cecile Thijs
Marie Cécile Thijs, originally a lawyer, decided more than fifteen years ago to follow her love for the camera. She is specialized in staged photography, and created the series White Collar, Food Portraits, Cooks, Horses and Human Angels, which are still in progress to this day. She also made many portraits of writers, politicians, designers and artists. Most recently she made still life series Asia > Amsterdam in cooperation with Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, and EU 2016 Mementos in assignment of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Her work has often been published and exhibited, her photos have repeatedly received international acclaim and are included in the collections of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Museum Rotterdam and many public and private art collections. She published several books, most recent Characters (2013) and Food Portraits (2015).

About Shi Hantao
Born in 1973, Shanghai
He recieved his master degree of Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).
He worked for Rockbund Art Museum,Chronus Art Center,EPSITE etc, being involved in the curating and organizing of artistic exhibitions and public programmes. His extensive works include writing and translating on photography, contemporary art and study of art institutions.

About”Dutch Artists in Shanghai”
Initiated by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Shanghai, the Dutch artists in Shanghai”series first launched this September, is an on-going program to introduce and promote both established and emerging Dutch visual artists from various disciplines to the Shanghai public.

玛丽·塞西尔·泰丝: 欢愉的静物

施瀚涛

玛丽·塞西尔·泰丝的肖像和静物摄影具有极为丰富的想象和生机勃勃的活力。她的拍摄是对普通人和日常物件细致入微的观看和描摹,光线用得非常谨慎,颜色表现丰富而厚重,从而在整体上为画面营造了一种常在北方文艺复兴的静物画中所出现的氛围——一种孕育于日常事物之中,却超越于日常生活之上的静默和神秘的力量。当然,中世纪和文艺复兴的静物画承担着诸多道德和教化的喻意和功能。从各种花朵所代表的不同的指涉(如圣母玛利亚、贞洁、忠诚、神圣之爱等等,到乐器、沙漏、翻开的书籍、骷髅等元素所隐含的意义(如时间、生命的短暂、死亡)多能找到其背后基督教教义的源头。而泰丝的作品却基本没有宗教的维度,即便那些鲜艳的蔬果和食物被包裹在静默而神秘的整体气氛之中,它们带给人们的依然是世俗化的滋润与欢愉的感受。更有意思的是,艺术家在用灵动的光线赋予这些物件以生命的同时,又以超现实主义的手法将它们安置在画面中。我们不仅可以看到勒内·马格里特(René Magritte)那标志性的穿正装的背影和圆顶礼貌,而且并置、错位、漂浮(juxtaposition, dislocation, floating)等超现实主义的手法和元素贯穿着其绝大多数作品,并由此制造出意外、非理性和梦境的效果。

不管是超现实主义,还是上面提及的日常中的非日常感受,这些实际上都是摄影本质特性的一部分。从尤金·阿杰特和布拉塞的巴黎,到沃克·埃文斯和威廉姆·埃格尔斯顿的美国,摄影师常常是在日常景观中捕捉或构造出一个个超现实主义的意象。当然,泰丝并没有走上街头,她只是在摄影棚和电脑中以一种更加安静的方式展开她所特有的视觉叙事,但她的作品还是让我们看到静物和肖像摄影实践中的一些新的可能。在过去数十年以来,当我们以异常清晰的学科分类和理论研究将照片的特性分别落实在它的记录性、物质性、索引性,以及它在各种自然和社会科学领域中的实证功能的时候,我们已经很久没有去关心一张照片画面本身所可能蕴含的精神性的维度。尽管本雅明被认为是最早指出摄影的复制性让传统艺术的灵光消逝的人,但他同时也承认在一些肖像摄影,以及早期的摄影工艺中,照片中依然闪耀着令人着迷和无法解释清楚的灵光。本雅明的这个矛盾多多少少反映出,摄影的再现过程始终有着超越于再现之上的神秘力量;这也可以在巴赞的“照片的本体论”中读到,即人们迷恋于那种未经人手的过程,因为它似乎带有超越自然的力量。

今天科技的发展已经让摄影成为可以随心所欲地对“真实”加以修饰和建构的过程,可是我们对于一幅画面中所可能潜藏的神秘力量的期待并没有减弱,而泰丝的作品的迷人之处就在于她的作品让我们似乎看到了那种力量的存在。比如她的静物作品中的对象,它们本来都应该处于静止之中,但却被无端地安排进了有点紧张的悬置或降落的状态里;它们在画面中看似静止,却显然只是一个动态过程中的凝固瞬间;它们处于一个过程的开始或结束的转变的临界点之上,或者说它们是潜藏着运动的静止。这些形状和颜色本身就非常美丽的水果、蔬菜、花瓶,或者小动物,被突然推入了一个奇妙的境地,像是童话故事中的一个情景,带给观众视觉和精神上的愉悦。显然,这是对超现实主义精神的继承,即那种完全依赖于直觉的视觉叙述;这也将我们再次带回到那种现代生活的体验——身边遍布偶遇和意外,但却又消磨在每天的平淡无奇之中。思比尔·艾伯特-谢福勒在《静物:一种历史》中曾说道,每一幅静物都象征着一个特定的时空和形而上学的视角;同时,静物也深陷一个悖论,即静物从来不是安静的。

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Solo exhibition Stills in Motion | 10 Corso Como Shanghai – Gallery Carla Sozzani

Solo Exhibition of 30 Works by Marie Cecile Thijs
In cooperation with the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Shanghai

Statement by Chinese Curator Shi Hantao:

Marie Cecile Thijs’s portraits and still life photography are extremely rich in imagination, and full of vitality. Her photography is a nuanced look and depiction of ordinary people and everyday objects. She uses light with caution, bringing forward rich and heavy colors, thus creating an atmosphere that is more often seen in the still life paintings of the Northern Renaissance – a quiet and mysterious power, which is conceived and transcends everyday life. Of course, the Medieval and Renaissance still life paintings bore both moral and educational metaphors and functions. From the various representations of flowers (references to the Virgin Mary, virginity, faithfulness, and divine love), to the implied meanings of musical instruments, the hourglass, open books, skeletons and other elements (indicating time, transience, mortality), one can trace back the sources of Christian doctrine. Even though Thijs’ fresh fruits, vegetables and food are wrapped in a quiet and mysterious atmosphere of the whole, there is no religious dimension. What they bring to people is still nourishment and delight in a secular sense. Even more interesting is that the artist uses intelligent light to bring these objects to life, and at the same time, using a surrealistic approach, places them in the frame. We can see not only René Magritte’s iconic backs and domed hats, but also surrealist’s practices and elements such as juxtaposition, dislocation, floating, throughout the vast majority of works, and thus creating unexpected, irrational, and dreamy effects.

Whether it is surrealism, or the above-mentioned daily allusion to non-everyday feelings, these are part of the essential character of photography. From the Paris captured by Eugene Atget and Brassai, to the America of Walker Evens and William Eggleston, photography artists are often in the daily landscape to capture or construct a surrealistic image. Of course, Thijs however does not take to the streets. She is a studio artist using computers in a subtle way to expand her unique visual narrative. Her works let us see some of the new possibilities that can be practiced in today’s still life and portrait photography. In the past few decades, when a very clear distinction of subject and theoretical studies of the characteristics of photographs were implemented in the documentation, materiality, indexability, and the various natural and social fields of empirical function, we have not been concerned with the spiritual dimension of the picture itself for a long time. Although Walter Benjamin is considered to be the first to point out that the reproduction of photography made the aura of traditional art disappear, he also admitted that in some portrait photography as well as the early photography process, the photos still shine with a fascinating and hard-to-explain aura. Benjamin’s contradiction more or less reflects that there is a mysterious force beyond the process of the photographic reproduction. This can also be read in Andre Bazin’s “Ontology of the Photographic Image,” that is, people are obsessed with the kind of “automatic” process, as it seems to carry forces beyond nature.

Today, the advances in science and technology have allowed photography to be a process of constructing and manipulating the “real”, but our anticipation to see this mysterious power hidden in a picture has not diminished. What is so fascinating about Thijs’ work is that we see the existence of that power. While her subjects in these still life works should have been at rest, they are unwittingly arranged into a little nervous suspension or in a landing state; They seem to be static in the picture, but apparently are frozen in a moment of a dynamic process; They are in the beginning or end of a process of critical transition, or they are in a motion hidden in the stasis of an act we will not know. The fruits, vegetables, vases, or small animals, which are very beautiful in shape and color, are suddenly pushed into a marvelous situation, such as a fairy tale, giving the viewer both visual and spiritual pleasure. This is the inheritance of the surrealist spirit, which is entirely dependent on the intuitive visual narrative. It is also grounded in the experience of modern life – what is around us is occasional and accidental, worn down to blandness through our daily routines. Sybille Ebert-Schifferer once said in “Still Life: A History”, that each still life is emblematic of a specific time and place but carries a certain metaphysical perspective. Still life resides in a paradox: life is never still.

On November 17th, Marie Cecile Thijs: Stills in Motion will be presented in 10 Corso Como Shanghai. A must see exhibition for photography lovers. Come and experience the power of being still.

About 10 Corso Como
Launched in 1990 in Milan, Italy by Carla Sozzani, 10 Corso Como is a network of spaces rolled into one experience and was the world’s first concept store. It is dedicated to Art, Fashion, Music, Design and Cuisine and has been designed as a multifunctional area, where customers and visitors are encouraged to meet and exchange culture, ideas and experiences. Named after its location in Milan in an industrial building, today 10 Corso Como has locations in Milan, Seoul, Shanghai and Beijing.
Opening time for top-floor gallery: 10:00 a.m. – 22:00 p.m.

About Marie Cecile Thijs
Marie Cécile Thijs, originally a lawyer, decided more than fifteen years ago to follow her love for the camera. She is specialized in staged photography, and created the series White Collar, Food Portraits, Cooks, Horses and Human Angels, which are still in progress to this day. She also made many portraits of writers, politicians, designers and artists. Most recently she made still life series Asia > Amsterdam in cooperation with Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, and EU 2016 Mementos in assignment of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Her work has often been published and exhibited, her photos have repeatedly received international acclaim and are included in the collections of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Museum Rotterdam and many public and private art collections. She published several books, most recent Characters (2013) and Food Portraits (2015).

About Shi Hantao
Born in 1973, Shanghai
He recieved his master degree of Arts Administration and Policy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).
He worked for Rockbund Art Museum,Chronus Art Center,EPSITE etc, being involved in the curating and organizing of artistic exhibitions and public programmes. His extensive works include writing and translating on photography, contemporary art and study of art institutions.

About”Dutch Artists in Shanghai”
Initiated by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in Shanghai, the Dutch artists in Shanghai”series first launched this September, is an on-going program to introduce and promote both established and emerging Dutch visual artists from various disciplines to the Shanghai public.

玛丽·塞西尔·泰丝: 欢愉的静物

施瀚涛

玛丽·塞西尔·泰丝的肖像和静物摄影具有极为丰富的想象和生机勃勃的活力。她的拍摄是对普通人和日常物件细致入微的观看和描摹,光线用得非常谨慎,颜色表现丰富而厚重,从而在整体上为画面营造了一种常在北方文艺复兴的静物画中所出现的氛围——一种孕育于日常事物之中,却超越于日常生活之上的静默和神秘的力量。当然,中世纪和文艺复兴的静物画承担着诸多道德和教化的喻意和功能。从各种花朵所代表的不同的指涉(如圣母玛利亚、贞洁、忠诚、神圣之爱等等,到乐器、沙漏、翻开的书籍、骷髅等元素所隐含的意义(如时间、生命的短暂、死亡)多能找到其背后基督教教义的源头。而泰丝的作品却基本没有宗教的维度,即便那些鲜艳的蔬果和食物被包裹在静默而神秘的整体气氛之中,它们带给人们的依然是世俗化的滋润与欢愉的感受。更有意思的是,艺术家在用灵动的光线赋予这些物件以生命的同时,又以超现实主义的手法将它们安置在画面中。我们不仅可以看到勒内·马格里特(René Magritte)那标志性的穿正装的背影和圆顶礼貌,而且并置、错位、漂浮(juxtaposition, dislocation, floating)等超现实主义的手法和元素贯穿着其绝大多数作品,并由此制造出意外、非理性和梦境的效果。

不管是超现实主义,还是上面提及的日常中的非日常感受,这些实际上都是摄影本质特性的一部分。从尤金·阿杰特和布拉塞的巴黎,到沃克·埃文斯和威廉姆·埃格尔斯顿的美国,摄影师常常是在日常景观中捕捉或构造出一个个超现实主义的意象。当然,泰丝并没有走上街头,她只是在摄影棚和电脑中以一种更加安静的方式展开她所特有的视觉叙事,但她的作品还是让我们看到静物和肖像摄影实践中的一些新的可能。在过去数十年以来,当我们以异常清晰的学科分类和理论研究将照片的特性分别落实在它的记录性、物质性、索引性,以及它在各种自然和社会科学领域中的实证功能的时候,我们已经很久没有去关心一张照片画面本身所可能蕴含的精神性的维度。尽管本雅明被认为是最早指出摄影的复制性让传统艺术的灵光消逝的人,但他同时也承认在一些肖像摄影,以及早期的摄影工艺中,照片中依然闪耀着令人着迷和无法解释清楚的灵光。本雅明的这个矛盾多多少少反映出,摄影的再现过程始终有着超越于再现之上的神秘力量;这也可以在巴赞的“照片的本体论”中读到,即人们迷恋于那种未经人手的过程,因为它似乎带有超越自然的力量。

今天科技的发展已经让摄影成为可以随心所欲地对“真实”加以修饰和建构的过程,可是我们对于一幅画面中所可能潜藏的神秘力量的期待并没有减弱,而泰丝的作品的迷人之处就在于她的作品让我们似乎看到了那种力量的存在。比如她的静物作品中的对象,它们本来都应该处于静止之中,但却被无端地安排进了有点紧张的悬置或降落的状态里;它们在画面中看似静止,却显然只是一个动态过程中的凝固瞬间;它们处于一个过程的开始或结束的转变的临界点之上,或者说它们是潜藏着运动的静止。这些形状和颜色本身就非常美丽的水果、蔬菜、花瓶,或者小动物,被突然推入了一个奇妙的境地,像是童话故事中的一个情景,带给观众视觉和精神上的愉悦。显然,这是对超现实主义精神的继承,即那种完全依赖于直觉的视觉叙述;这也将我们再次带回到那种现代生活的体验——身边遍布偶遇和意外,但却又消磨在每天的平淡无奇之中。思比尔·艾伯特-谢福勒在《静物:一种历史》中曾说道,每一幅静物都象征着一个特定的时空和形而上学的视角;同时,静物也深陷一个悖论,即静物从来不是安静的。

More info
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