Jean-Charles Hue — Tijuana Jarretelle le Diable — Michel Rein Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: January 28 → February 25, 2012

Galerie Michel Rein presents the new video by Jean-Charles Hue: Tijuana Jarretelle le Diable.

Filmed during the artist’s third visit to Tijuana in 2011, the work revisits the neighbourhood and characters explored in his 2009 series Tijuana, Carne Viva. This previous series was shown at Galerie Michel Rein in January 2010.

“I returned to tell my story to my friends with a beer in my hand, says Jean-Charles Hue. They understood my pain. They themselves believe that things are going from bad to worse here. They say it’s due to the arrival of this couple, El Tuerto (The One Eyed Man) and his wife Pretty Eyes. She is heavily pregnant and has been so for the past two years. They say that Pretty Eyes refuses to give birth to a child by her husband, who has a dirty reputation, and carries an evil eye over the city. Without really knowing why, I began to look for this couple in Tijuana just as I had looked for David. That is how I met the woman who sold sexy lingerie to The One Eyed Man… as presents for Pretty Eyes who is very fond of them. “I suspender the devil” she said, or something along those lines!”

The exhibition also presents a series of photographs by Jean Charles Hue, brought together in the form of a calendar. Commissioned by SAM Art Projects, sixteen of the art world’s personalities expose themselves in front of the lens. The sales of this limited edition calendar (200 copies), signed and numbered, will benefit projects by students of the École Nationale Supérieur d’Arts Paris-Cergy (ENSAPC).

At the frontier between documentary, photography and cinema, Jean-Charles Hue’s work crosses a number of disciplines and media. His videos immerse the spectator in troubling atmospheres, be it the gritty world of the traveler of the erotic heat or the latent violence of Tijuana.

Monograph soon to be released: Jean-Charles Hue, Espace Croisé, Roubaix, 2012

Linked to the exhibition, Jean-Charles Hue will present his work on Wednesday the 1st of February at 6pm at the Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris.