For the 2021 edition of PhotoSaintGermain, the galleries Le Minotaure and Alain Le Gaillard propose the solo exhibition “Incarnasion” of the Franco-Israeli artist Yosef Joseph Yaakov Dadoune. It is a cycle of 20 photographs taken in 2006, never shown to the public, and the "Sion" project, composed of two films made in collaboration with the Louvre Museum in Paris: the first, in black and white of 12 minutes, the second in color and lasting one hour (both are now part of the museum's collections). Joseph Dadoune is the first Franco-Israeli director with whom the Louvre has collaborated, giving him permission to film “Sion” inside its spaces.
The artist is inspired by Jewish writings, Christianity, the history of ancient and contemporary art. His story of "Sion" - played by Israeli actress Ronit Elkabetz, dressed in costumes designed by Christian Lacroix - explores a poetics of pain, speaks of redemption, exile and renewal.
“Sion” is both a woman made of flesh and blood and an allegory. She is mother, sister, source, Medusa, woman-child, stepmother, goddess and poison. She also embodies Jerusalem, which fights for its freedom and projects its pain and tragedy onto the world. Ronit Elkabetz is lying in a wheelbarrow, she howls like a wounded animal. Dressed in a wedding dress, soiled by mud, she carries wooden planks, feeds camels ...
The photographs present a struggle between matter and spirit, between East and West, between crime and punishment, logic and madness.
Galerie Alain Le Gaillard
La galerie Alain Le Gaillard opened in 1994 et exhibited until 2012 contemporary artists such as Denis Oppenheim, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Anish Kapoor and Louise Bourgeois, alterning with the presentation of young aspiring artists.
Since 2012, in collaboration with Galerie Le Minotaure, the gallery specializes in the display of historical artists of the early XXth century who had a decisive impact on art history but whose works remain unknown of the general public.
Galerie Le Minotaure
Created in 2002 by Benoit Sapiro, expert within the “Compagnie Nationale des Experts”, member of the “Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art” and Vice-President of the PhotoSaintGermain Festival, the “Galerie Minotaure” is situated in the former location of the famous surrealist bookshop of the same name. The gallery is specialised in the artists of the “École de Paris” and in the avant-guarde art of Central and Eastern Europe, from 1910s up until 1960s. Furthermore, the prominence of its collections allows him to regularly take part in reference exhibitions with great museums such as the Russian State museums, the Pouchkine museum…