Revisiting the History of Photography (1. Jan Dibbets)

Anton Giulio Bragaglia and Arturo Bragaglia, Salutando, 1911, 17.5x23cm, Galleria civica in Modeno

To question the nature of photography is the aim of Pandora’s Box, an exhibition curated by Jan Dibbets at the MAMVP in Paris (a museum the artist is familiar with), from March 25 to July 17, 2016. Hailing from conceptual art, Dibbets was among the first to examine photography itself (alongside William Anastasi, then Michael Snow, John Hilliard, Tim Rautert and Ugo Mulas). Around 1970, he created a series of photographs addressing the processes and mechanisms of photography , as well as its essence, as opposed to the images represented: the “how” of photography rather than its “what.” In this exhibition, Dibbets presses forward with these same concerns, reframing them within the history of photography, and nourishing them with readings of Vilém Flusser’s ideas –a thinker he discovered while preparing the exhibition. (This fact was of great interest to me, of course; it is more thoroughly explained in a video of his interview with Fabrice Hergott than in the catalogue).
Pandora’s Box has been put together by an artist, not an art historian, and therefore there were some liberties taken, some partial choices made, some incongruous selections (especially in the last section, which was quite disappointing), and some bizarre omissions (from the five precursors I just cited, only Anastasi and Snow are featured, and Mulas’ absence in particular is baffling, if it is not simply a petty move by Dibbets). Those choices will appeal or not to the visitor, but –at least until the last section– they make for a compelling exhibition.

Ugo Mulas, or the Verification of Art

Ugo Mulas, Autoritratto con Nini [Self-portrait with Nini], 1970, Verifica n°13 [not featured at the HCB Foundation]

The complete series of Verifiche [Verifications], Ugo Mulas’ last work before his death in 1973 at the age of 45, was recently on display at the Centre Pompidou. Another exhibition on the great Italian photographer just opened at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, but its value lies in that it presents us with another facet of his production, focused on artists and the art world in New York (between 1964 and 1967) and across Italy. I had the opportunity to see part of this work in Naples, five years ago, but this exhibition benefits greatly from the joint publication of the French translation of Ugo Mulas’ book La photographie, thanks to Le Point du Jour Editions (who also already presented this exhibition in Cherbourg).