Thomas Mailaender: Les Belles Images

The exhibition features a broad array of both new and existing works specifically created for this occasion, including “Fail Anthology”, “Extreme Retouch”, and “Chemical Room”, an immersive installation exploring the photographic medium. The display includes, among other pieces, the series “Les Belles Images”, where the artist reappropriates photographs from press agencies as well as major series like “Extreme Tourism”, “Gone Fishing”, and “Illustrated People”. Finally, the series “Life and Adventures of a Silver Woman on Planet Earth” reflects on the life and activism of Rosemary Jacobs, an American activist who was a victim of the ravages of silver nitrate, using photography to document her story and denounce the use of this compound for medical purposes.
The Carte Blanche exhibition is an experimental photographic laboratory where the diversity of visual proposals questions our relationships with images and their daily impact on circulation and consumption. Guided by the artist’s interventions, the exhibition places the legitimacy of creative processes at its core. By moving away from traditional frameworks of visual display, Les Belles Images represents a major innovative approach for the MEP as a photography museum.