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Gilles COULON
Gilles COULON
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Transhumance,
Mobilité à risques
Gilles Coulon takes us down the tracks followed by the herds to the south of Burkina Faso to Togo, from January to June, looking for more appetizing pastures and new livestock markets.
He lays our eyes right behind the men who walk in the back or in the middle of the flock and tells with modesty his admiration for these « cowboys ».
“It’s about the notion of mobility that I have focused my work, I shared for weeks the life of the breeders, their walk, their difficulties to move in an increasingly hostile and dangerous environment.“
He tries to place us in the sacred atmosphere of the adventure experienced by transhumant shepherds, unrecognized as major “modern” economic operators, who are, nonetheless, real smugglers of trade secrets between the different regions they cross, across borders, twice a year.
With this series made in 2016, Gilles Coulon takes us on legendary tracks of a necessary quest: the change of horizon.
Text by Chab Touré
He won the 1st prize of the World Press Photo in the category «daily life» for a first work on transhumance between Mali and Mauritania.
Exhibitions
2018
Solo show: Gilles COULON
Transhumance
PHOTO DOC. foire
HALLE DES BLANCS
10 – 12 mai 2019
Biography
Gilles Coulon’s work has three ages.
Between 1990 and 2002, he drew from Africa the subjects of several years of reporting. The meeting with Mali gave rise to several photographic stories. “Avoir 20 ans à Bamako” embraces the energy of Malian youth, “Delta” plunges into the meanders of the inhabitants of the banks of the Niger River and “Un président en campagne” follows, in 1997, the campaign tours of Alpha Oumar Konaré.
From the 2000s, he moved away from the documentary form and set out in search of a new poetics. He created “White Night”, a work on neon, a form of night wandering in search of a universal and suggestive light.
Gilles Coulon then takes the path of another composition. Definitively avoiding the singular “beautiful image”, he seeks to build a questioning through series. Triptychs and diptychs thus compose «Grins», a work on speech circles in Bamako in which the mouvement of the subject’s speech leads to that of the viewer’s gaze. “For Reasons” is a photographic history composed in counterpoint, where the apparent serenity of the image takes on a completely different dimension by binding itself to the testimony. This echo to time and space leaves the spectator silent in the face of a serious reality of contemporary society.
With « Black Out », in-production project, Gilles Coulon returns to explore Africa, trying to represent darkness, its matter and its rhythm.
Solo exhibitions
2019
Transhumance – Photo Doc – Paris, France
2018
Entrevues – Festival Portrait(s) 2018 – Vichy, France
Rebirth – Maison Européenne de la photographie – Paris, France
Extime ou l’intimité exposée – Jeunes Générations – Friche La Belle de Mai – Marseille, France
2017
Hiver(s) – Paysages Français – BNF Paris – France
Extime ou l’intimité exposée – Jeunes Générations – Phnom Penh Festival 2017, Cambodia
Extime ou l’intimité exposée – Jeunes Générations – Villa Pérochon – Niort, France
Extime ou l’intimité exposée – Jeunes Générations – Gare de Lyon – Paris, France
Extime ou l’intimité exposée – Jeunes Générations – Festival ImageSingulières – Sète, France
Transhumance, mobilité à risques – Institut Français in Bamako – Mali
Transhumance, mobilité à risques – Institut Français in Ouagadougou – Burkina Faso
Transhumance, mobilité à risques – Institut Français in Abidjan – Ivory Coast
Transhumance, mobilité à risques – Hôtel N’gor Diarama – Dakar, Senegal
Transhumance, mobilité à risques – Espace Central Dupon – Paris, France
2013
For Reasons – La galerie particulière – Paris, France
2012
Hiver(s) – Mai Photographie – Quimper, France
Féroé – Festival Photo de Mer – Vannes, France
2011
Hiver(s) – La galerie particulière – Paris, Franc
Voyage en Flamenco – Galerie du Palais, Doha, Qatar
2010
Voyage en Flamenco – Arte Flamenco Festival – Mont de Marsan, France
2009
White Night – Espace André Malraux – Herblay, France
White Night – Bibliothèque Municipale – Anglette, France
2008
White Night – Espace Robert Desnos – Montreuil, France
Grins – Festival Chronique Nomade – Honfleur, France
2007
White Night – Light Galery – Marrakech, Morocco
2006
Grins – Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie – Arles, France
White Night – Galerie la chambre Claire – Annecy, France
2005
Un président en Campagne – Confluence – Paris, France
Delta – Festival Photo Peuples et Nature – La Gacily, France
2004
White Night – Acte 2 Photo – Paris, France
White Night – Lagerfeld Galery – Paris, France
2003
Avoir 20 ans à Bamako – Galerie du Théâtre de l’Agora – Evry, France
2002
Samedis Soir – Festival Visa pour l’Image – Perpignan, France
Samedis Soir – Centre Photographique d’Ile de France – Pontault-Combault, France
2001
Marée noire – Centre Atlantique de la Photographie – Brest, France
Delta – Festival Photographique de Biarritz – Biarritz, France
Avoir 20 ans à Bamako – Galerie Chab – Bamako, Mali
Awards, Scholarships and Public Orders
2017
Winner of the 8th Edition of the Eurazéo Prize – « Ré-enchanter l’entreprise » – Rebirth
2016
Winner of the CNAP Public Order – Jeunes Génération – Extime
2007
Infinity Awards 2007 ICP New York Photographic Book of the Year for the publication of the book Sommes-nous ?
2000
Winner of the DAP Public Order on Youth in France – Samedis Soir
1997
Winner of the World Press Photo – Daily Life category for his work on transhumance between Mali and Mauritania
Collections
Eurazéo / BNF (Bibliothèque Nationale de France) / FNAC (Fond National d’Art Contemporain) / Musée de la Marine / DRAC, Les Landes / La galerie Particulière – Paris / Tendance Floue Galerie / Acte 2 / Artothèque de Rome
Individual edits
Entrevues, Filigranes Editions / Transhumance, Mobilité à Risques, Tendance Floue Editions / Voyage en Flamenco, Editions Atlantica / White Night, Editions Steidl / Un président en campagne, Cauris editions / Delta, text by Marie Laure de Noray, editions Donniya / Avoir 20 ans à Bamako, text by Marie Laure de Noray, Editions Alternatives
Collective exhibitions
Prize
Press
Links