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Contemporary Talks
Past Event November 8, 2024 / 6:30pm – 7:30pm
Villa Albertine’s Resident Artist Talk with Geoffroy Mathieu, in Partnership with Flux Projects
Talk
After two months of residency exploring Atlanta, a city often considered “unwalkable,” Geoffroy Mathieu comes to Atlanta Contemporary as part of their Villa Albertine Resident Artist Talk series in partnership with Flux Projects. Join us as he shares captivating photographs and insights from his explorations of urban walking in this vibrant city. Geoffroy will be in conversation with Anne Archer Dennington, Executive Director of Flux Projects.
“My photography questions the way environmental and political issues are made tangible in the landscape. Alone, with a partner, or as part of a collective, I complete travel- or immersion-based projects to document shifting territories, in-between spaces, and objects and actions that reveal resistances in the ways in which places are used.” — Geoffroy Mathieu
For his residency project with Villa Albertine, Geoffroy wants to get to know “the landscapes of Atlanta through the bodies and figures of those who travel by foot because they do not own a car, because there is no public transport, or because sometimes in the city it is smarter to keep moving.
The figure of the walker has ultimately been canceled by a city that relegates those without cars to outcasts, vagabonds, or criminals. Fuel has supplanted muscle. Yet, for some people, walking is still the most economical, available, and reliable means of transport. Who are they? How do they walk? What places and communities do they link together? Which itineraries, passages, and landscapes do they walk through each day? What must they endure? What dangers do they face?”
Don’t miss this chance to experience Atlanta through Geoffroy’s lens!
This event will take place within the Gallery 1 and is free to attend. Registration is required.
Parking is free in the lot at Bankhead & Means Street (Google Maps Location). You can access the lot via Bankhead Avenue and proceed past the parking attendant booth.
This event is co-presented by Atlanta Contemporary, as part of their Villa Albertine Artist Talk series, Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture & Education, and Flux Projects.
Bios
Geoffroy Mathieu
Geoffroy Mathieu’s photography questions how environmental and political issues are made tangible in the landscape. Whether working alone, with a partner, or as part of a collective, he engages in travel- or immersion-based projects to document shifting territories, in-between spaces, and objects and actions that reveal resistances in the ways places are utilized.
Whether commissioned by local authorities or cultural institutions, created during residencies, or stemming from personal initiatives, his photography series are pursued as poetic investigations. The encounters with reality that inspire the images are informed by rigorous documentary preparation. Utilizing the mobility of photography, which serves as both fact and fiction, he constructs situated narratives.
In collaboration with associations, collectives, and researchers, Mathieu strives to disseminate images beyond the art world, aiming to give them a place or form of use within public debate to support causes and commitments focused on caring for or mending the environment.
A graduate of the French Higher School of Photography (ENSP) in Arles, Mathieu lives and works in Marseille. He presents his works as publications (Actes Sud, Poursuite, Filigranes, Zoème, Wildproject, Building Books), through solo or collective exhibitions, and, more recently, through walked performances. In 2021, he participated in the fourth edition of Regards du Grand Paris (Ateliers Médicis and the French Centre for Visual Arts). The following year, he won the French National Library’s “Radioscopy of France” Major Photojournalism Commission. In 2023, he co-published a book with Jordi Ballestra, Anti-installation (published by Building Books), supported by the French Center for Visual Arts (CNAP) publishing grant.
Villa Albertine
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Reinventing artists’ residencies, Villa Albertine is creating a network for arts and ideas spanning France and the United States. It offers tailor-made residencies for global creators, thinkers, and cultural professionals. |
Anne Archer Dennington
Anne Archer Dennington is the founding Executive Director of Flux Projects, an organization commissioning public art that invites audiences in Atlanta to explore the city’s sites and stories as a means to imagine its future possibilities. Inspiring wonder and imagination, these projects support artists at all career levels to take risks and grow their practices. Prior to Flux Projects, Dennington led three previous organizations—Atlanta Celebrates Photography, the Masur Museum, and The Cooley House—and worked across the commercial, government, and nonprofit art sectors.