Edition 2013

Daido Moriyama

LABYRINTH + MONOCHROME

Labyrinth + Monochrome is a black and white photographic installation that plunges the visitor into a flow of images specific to Daido Moriyama’s photographic practice. Born in Japan in 1938, Daido Moriyama is one of the world’s major con- temporary photographers. A member of the post-World War II Japanese avant-garde, he began his photographic career in the 1960s. The author of more than 150 books combining photographs, theoretical texts, and diverse printing techniques, and the creator of installations and performance works, he has employed all the forms of the photographic medium and contributed to redefining street photography. The Labyrinth + Monochrome exhibition is a synthesis of this rich, dense, and protean œuvre. Monochrome takes us on a journey through Tokyo’s streets; Labyrinth remixes Moriyama’s photographs—he brings together thousands of images to create fake contact sheets, playing with places, years and subjects; Mesh forms a kinetic composition of images of fishnet tights from his famous How to Create a Beautiful Picture series. In it, Moriyama studies canons of beauty by fictitiously addressing Nicéphore-Niépce, the inventor of photography. With Labyrinth + Monochrome, Daido Moriyama abolishes the notion of the unique image as masterpiece. His work, rather than a series of snapshots, is a flow of images generated by an attitude to the world.

Exhibition in collaboration with Polka Gallery, Paris.
Exhibition venue: Magasin Électrique, Parc des Ateliers.

  • Institutional partners

    • République Française
    • Région Provence Alpes Côté d'Azur
    • Département des Bouches du Rhône
    • Arles
    • Le Centre des monuments nationaux est heureux de soutenir les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles en accueillant des expositions dans l’abbaye de Montmajour
  • Main partners

    • Fondation LUMA
    • BMW
    • SNCF
    • Kering
  • Media partners

    • Arte
    • Lci
    • Konbini
    • Le Point
    • Madame Figaro
    • France Culture