Her exhibition “Started from the body”, at the Richard Taittinger gallery on the Lower East Side, is a snub to the myth of the perfect female body.
Charlotte Abramow, 28-year-old Belgian artist discovered by the famous photographer Paolo Roversi, should have been present last month at the opening of his first major exhibition in New York *. The event took place at Richard Taittinger gallery, great-grandson of the founder of the champagne brand, specializing in contemporary art. But health constraints prevented her from taking the plane. She had to be content with a “video-opening”. Last week, she was finally in Manhattan with her manager and companion Arthur Catton to see her works on display. Encounter.
“Unstable Balance” © Charlotte Abramow
—
What is the message of this exhibition?
Charlotte Abramow.It’s a critique of the myth of the perfect female body, a reflection on capitalism that imposes standards on us for selling products. The exhibition is designed as a chronological journey through the evolution of the female body, from adolescence to old age. Among those that I photographed naked, there is this young woman who carries out a pear tree with this absurd skirt which covers her face while she has the buttocks in the air: this photo, entitled “unstable balance” is a snub to ambient hypersexualization. There is also Claudette Walker, 82, who was delighted to pose nude. I found her through a senior modeling agency. The picture is beautiful. Claudette is today the image of the advertisement for the vaccination campaign against the Covid, and I am delighted. It is the power of the photo.
Rokhaya Diallo – Ears Have Walls © Charlotte Abramow
—
How did you get the idea for this exhibition?
By coming across a video in which Michel Foucault reads his text “the utopia of the body” in 1966. He speaks of the body as of a prison. The gaze of others locks us in, causes discomfort, and in the end, a lot of waste. This is what I want to show in this exhibition.
Claudette Walker © Charlotte Abramow
—
Does the feminism so decried by some still have a future?
A lot of people today are scared of feminism indeed, and that’s sad. For me, feminism is a starting point. I start from the complexes that women can have with their bodies to move towards more societal things. I denounce the stereotypes that are imposed on women, but also all other forms of injustice, whether racial or linked to sexual orientation. I thus photographed Rokhaya diallo (journalist and activist, slayer of state racism, Editor’s note). She was once attacked by Alain Finkielkraut or Eric Zemmour, who told her a long time ago that she should not have this first name. I had it posed in front of a wall of ears, which gave this photo that I entitled “The ears have walls”, a nod to Magritte’s “sky in the bird” which influences me a lot. by his way of playing with the unexpected. The idea is to highlight the blinders of those who say that in France, there is no discrimination linked to skin color, while this is obviously a lure. Personally, I am not an activist: being agoraphobic, I will never demonstrate. But my art is my mini-contribution to the collective awakening on the realities which lead to any form of rejection of the other.
Richard taittinger © R.F.T.
—Any reproduction prohibited–
