Books by Artists — Alaska Editions & Portfolio#4 — Les Douches la Galerie — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: November 30, 2012 → January 12, 2013

Books by Artists shows the work of Sébastien Montabonel with the prestigious Alaska Editions, and the Museum of French Monuments, a new portfolio by Stéphane Couturier.

Alaska Editions’ focus is single-mindedly and uncompromisingly to publish and promote world-wide contemporary photography using publishing in a ‘pure sense’, which means exclusively and uniquely contemporary photography with no fashion, editorial, advertising or utilitarian photography.

Alaska has evolved into what it is today: a premium brand proposition, limited edition, hybrid ‘bookazine’, dedicated to showcasing contemporary photographic art in a new and subtle format. It is designed to ‘exhibit’ work with great sensitivity, near print quality reproduction with a ‘no expense sparred’ ethos. Alaska has established itself as a respected, credible, collectable and opinion forming publication, whilst always remaining true to its core values. Challenging new boundaries and urging a continued exploration of new and unfamiliar territory in the contemporary art landscape.

Today Alaska Editions has been purchased by some of the most prestigious public and private collections worldwide ( Pompidou, LACMA, BNF, Foundation Maison Rouge…)

Portfolio : the Museum of French Monuments, by Stéphane Couturier : these photographs done on the Museum of French Monuments in Paris were taken between 2003-2006 during the building’s restoration. The castings, copies of mural paintings and other architectural fragments from France’s cultural past have, in turn, acquired national heritage status. This transformation of status from copy to a full-fledged work of art has led to the protection of these copies. The photographic work has sought to highlight the layers of time represented in these reproductions, thus allowing them to become more than simple representations but true art objects evolving towards heritage status. The superposition of such heterogeneous elements from different periods, the presence of the original molds or imprints left by the layering deposits of the pieces themselves , along with the remains of the former Palais du Trocadéro as well, all of these components combine and overlap to express the history of a place in mutation and still very much alive.

What is this work about, then ? Time becomes its very subject in which marks, imprints, original models, and copies come together in the same, singular organic mix.