Devoted to the work of Fred Boissonnas (1858 -1946), this exhibition highlights a crucial yet little-known facet of the career of Geneva’s famous photographer: his travels in the Mediterranean.
The imaginarium of the Mediterranean
From the 1860s to the 1980s, the Boissonnas dynasty placed photography at the heart of life in Geneva. The exhibition, entitled “A photographic odyssey”, reveals a less familiar aspect of its history. In 1903, while at the peak of his entrepreneurial career, Fred Boissonnas left the comfort of his studio and travelled to Greece. This first journey turned his life upside down. Greatly appreciated for the intensity of its light, the Mediterranean was a powerful source of imagination against the backdrop of wars, economic crises and the constraints of industrial society. To Fred Boissonnas, its landscapes were a means of following in the footsteps of the Phoenician, Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Roman, Muslim and Christian civilisations in search of a new geographic interpretation of the world.
An epoch, an art
More than a conventional retrospective, the exhibition is a veritable invitation to take a journey by sea through these landscapes of a different time. The public follows Boissonnas along the stages of his odyssey, plunging into specific periods of history: those of the early 20th century, Geneva and photographic art. For while we admire the marvels of Ancient Greece or the arid landscapes of the Sinai Peninsula, we also discover the fascination of an entire epoch for Antiquity and the artistic repercussions that accompanied it.
Acknowledgement of photography as an art in its own right is also a key element of Boissonnas’ career. The rich history of photography in Geneva (in particular the numerous collaborations between the photographer and various writers, artists, scholars and politicians of his time) is ample proof of this.
Exhibition organised by the Museum of Art and History, Geneva Library and the University of Geneva
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Article modifié le 01.12.2021 à 09:54