Antoine D’Agata, a 50 year old photographer, is already a legend and the Bal installation is monumental . In order to echo this exhibition, the gallery chose to show iconic images of the artist in a way they were never shown before. Large prints found a home and came to haunt the gallery this spring. Facing the ‘all over’ hanging of the Bal, the scenography the artist set his mind on is scarce and shall highlight the importance and splendour of each image.
Antoine d’Agata is an artist that makes one uneasy. Every one cannot and shall not join the fan club. On the contrary, his work can be shocking and make one ponder on its inner shadows. As a political and cutaway artist, he exposes himself, makes bodies explode and unleashes the chiaroscuro of each life to its own limits.
If the gallery fully subscribe to this work, it is clear that it outshines the unveiled darkness to change into an unprecedented artwork: unique and total. Other artists deal with darkness –one might think of the tortured images of his friend Nan Goldin or Goya’s Blacks– but Antoine d’Agata only pushes the experience to its highest degree. His existential scream, nurtured by terror as well as human beauty, subsist on those few surviving images . An essential exegesis binded with political stands that tears down indifference.
