The state of young people in France : work in progress
The debate opposing upholders of noble art and those claiming the superiority of applied arts, is no longer of topical interest and rightly, it has dwindled out. The new exhibition area set up at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art bears witness to this shift in attitudes. Here, decorative art, paintings and photographs happily rub shoulders with one another. They are all equal players in the representation of art.
Photography too, must be seen in the same context, as having reconciled itself precisely with itself. Baudelaire was the first to say that : “ this humble art, in the service of other forms of art “ has for a long time been relegated to the status of mere accessory in the art world. Either it played this role or it was simply given with the general label of contemporary art.
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The work commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and Communication is a two-fold conscious step towards finding answers to the following question : What is the perspective from which the forty or so artists and photographers on this project, (whether they be French or foreign), see young people living in this country ? and what is their place in this world, where changes take place at neck-breaking speed? The answer, at least in the last ten years, has been found in the adoption of a more flexible and generous outlook, one which encompasses and blends in all cultures to form a melting-pot. One , by definition, where racial barriers and prejudices are broken down.
The initial signs of this change took place in the Balkans, notably in Sarajevo. War correspondents dispatched in that region began taking pictures which they could not sell : magazines considered them totally unsuitable, television had in a way, "killed" the images created by photography. Artists reacted to this situation by giving the public, crudely realistic works of art or else, art with a social or political message. Art galleries, museums and periodicals alike became the means to communicate this form of art. Journalists such as Laurent Van der Stockt and Luc Delahaye, to mention but a few, were thus able to break new ground, by shifting their attention from the "written" medium, ie. magazines and periodicals, to other forms of artistic expression. By the end of the 1990’s this approach became more widespread and could count on being adopted by renowned fashion photographers as well as people working in advertising or the art world.
It is as if big names such as Martin Parr, Inès van Lamsweerde or Véronique Ellena had combined their know-how and experience acquired in the world of the media with the added bonus represented by their involvment in social issues. Thus, it does not come as a surprise to see the mixed reaction in the public. They constantly hover between fiction and reality. Yet, Philippe Durand, Igor Moukhine, Martine Locatelli, Véronique Ellena, David Rosenfeld, Bertrand Desprez, Hélène Bamberger, Marie-Paule Nègre, Laurent Van der Stockt have done their utmost to describe the lives of these youngsters, whether their photographs touche on the work sphere, society or personal relations.
Agnès de Gouvion Saint-Cyr