Josef Koudelka, la fabrique d’Exils — Centre Georges Pompidou — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: February 22 → May 22, 2017

Josef Koudelka, la fabrique d’Exils is Josef Koudelka’s first exhibition in Paris for 29 years. In 2016, the photographer donated the entire series of his Exiles series (seventy-five photographs) to the Centre Pompidou. The exhibition, presented in the Galerie de Photographies, reveals thirty-five of the series’ most iconic pictures, together with numerous unpublished images printed especially for the occasion. The circuit is rounded off with an extraordinary group of self-portraits taken by Koudelka during his travels, never shown until now. The exhibition also presents, for the first time, the «contact sheets» on which he glued his images, organised by form or theme.

In 1970, not long after photographing the invasion of Prague by Soviet tanks, Josef Koudelka decided to leave his native Czechoslovakia. During the winter months he lived in first London, then Paris. The rest of the time he spent travelling Europe, reacting to whatever chance put in his path.

During this period from the Seventies to the Eighties, he took the spellbinding pictures in the Exiles series. They were exhibited in Paris in 1988, then compiled in a book that has since become a reference in the genre.

Through eighty photographs, the Centre Pompidou exhibition provides a truly rich and comprehensive presentation of this series. It explores how the project came about, shedding light for the first time on the «making» of Exiles.