BAUME & MERCIER and GERARD RANCINAN - CAROLINE GAUDRIAULT

 

exhibit-installation

 

November 2008, Mezzanine Palais de Tokyo, Paris

June 2009, Palazzo delle Esposizzioni, Rome.

 

Two extraordinary events in the company of photographers such as Eliott Erwitt, James Nachtwey, David Burnett, Nan Goldin, Mimmo Jodice, Don McCullin and Giorgio Barrera

 

 

Through this outstanding project, entitled “The Photographer”, Baume & Mercier once again reaffirms its involvement in photography and reinforces its position as a contemporary Swiss watch-making company interested in capturing the memory of present and future.

 

The brand developed this international project in cooperation with the French photographer Gérard Rancinan and the writer Caroline Gaudriault. They joined forces to dream up a voyage interspersed with encounters with the living masters of contemporary photography all around the world. It is a tribute to the greatest witnesses of our times. The only requirements Baume & Mercier set for them were to immortalize some contemporary photographers and to successfully capture their vision of the world. This time, these great photographers find themselves alone in front of the objective, with no artifice, at the very heart of their private life. They have all played the game and made an effort so that we can get a glimpse of their world through a portrait.
The unanimous conclusion is that these photographers bear a great responsibility for our history, that of bearing testimony to our times and of thereby creating a legacy for future generations.

 

 

A wonderful book was edited with these beautiful portraits and stories created during the journey by Gérard Rancinan and Caroline Gaudriault.

The astonishing scenography of the exhibition has been inspired by this same book: the installation itself looks like a maze of pictures representing the inside of a print shop in the course of making a book. The photographs are suspended in mid-air, containing little notes and marks, giving the spectator the impression of looking at pages of a fictive book. Sounds and videos complete this artistic installation and bring the photographs to life by transporting the visitor to the different places in which the pictures were taken.