Edition 2021

CHARLOTTE PERRIAND

HOW DO WE WANT TO LIVE? POLITICS OF PHOTOMONTAGE

Charlotte Perriand devoted her life to improving the living conditions of as many people as possible, creating an "art of inhabiting" in connection with nature. She used photography not only as a tool for observing reality, but also to promote her conception of a new world. Echoing our current concerns, in the 1930s she used sweeping photomontages to denounce unhealthy urban conditions and present her vision of how life can be made better. Her striking photographic frescoes, including "The Great Misery of Paris" (1936) and the Agriculture Ministry’s waiting room and pavilion at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne [International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life] (both 1937), created with Fernand Léger, attest to her modernity. The exhibition offers insights into her idea of the world through her working methods and incredible collection of photographs—period prints, negatives, magazine clippings and personal photographs—on display for the first time, set against recreations of her monumental photomontages.

Exhibition curator: Damarice Amao, with the complicity of Sébastien Gokalp and the Charlotte Perriand Archives.
Publication: Charlotte Perriand, Politique du photomontage, Comment voulons-nous vivre?, under the supervision of Damarice Amao and Emmanuelle Kouchner, Actes Sud, 2021.
Wallpapers by Processus, Paris.
Framing by Circad, Paris.

  • 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