︎︎︎ EXHIBITED
THE PERFECT PHOTOGRAPH (IS A PAINTING)
Photo Saint-Germain
as part of Room Service at Hotel La Louisiane (2024)
Analog photographs printed on Arches 310g, watercolor, acrylic paint, vintage wood framing.
Multiple formats.
the perfect photograph (is a painting) is above all a dream of painting. This series of silver photographs reworked in watercolour is inspired by the dreamlike, romantic world of the pre-Raphaelite movement, and its penchant for odalisques, mythological natural spaces and the various religious and pagan fables of the Middle Ages. The result is a shifted rewriting of love and death, in which the various techniques used blur the boundary between photographic image and pictorial creation.
Methodically reworking the classic postures and intentions of the models used by nineteenth-century painters,the perfect photograph (is a painting) depicts people whose bodies and histories have been erased by the history of art, placing trans people and/or sex workers at the centre of the works. This series restores agentivity to these dissident bodies, which have often served as passive subjects for male painters, and shows them triumphant, liberated from their subaltern roles, finally recognised as the sole heroines of their story - and therefore entirely free to write and tell it.
the perfect photograph (is a painting) is also a tribute to the dialogue between pioneering nineteenth-century photography and contemporary painting of the same period, and to the inventiveness of photographers in colouring their first negatives, long before the invention of the legendary Kodachrome.
Methodically reworking the classic postures and intentions of the models used by nineteenth-century painters,the perfect photograph (is a painting) depicts people whose bodies and histories have been erased by the history of art, placing trans people and/or sex workers at the centre of the works. This series restores agentivity to these dissident bodies, which have often served as passive subjects for male painters, and shows them triumphant, liberated from their subaltern roles, finally recognised as the sole heroines of their story - and therefore entirely free to write and tell it.
the perfect photograph (is a painting) is also a tribute to the dialogue between pioneering nineteenth-century photography and contemporary painting of the same period, and to the inventiveness of photographers in colouring their first negatives, long before the invention of the legendary Kodachrome.
L’INQUIÉTUDE
Rencontres d’Arles
as part of the Roederer Discovery Prize (2024)
as part of the Roederer Discovery Prize (2024)
Various techniques incl. : analog photographs printed on plexiglass, aluminium, fabric and vinyl
Multiple formats.
“ Windows open to all winds, curtains ready to fly away, doors ajar with glimpses of silhouettes, Nanténé Traoré's images convey a sense of floating, as if in these minute movements of air the clamor of the world, which has become a distant background noise, had become suspended for a time; as if in these states of latency everything seemed ready to vacillate. The series is entitled L’Inquiétude [Disquiet], in reference to Valère Novarina's eponymous play. A deep-rooted anxiety seems to be at stake here, that of being in, and having to compose with, this moment of the world and its constantly recurring crises. Certain images foreshadow a tension: a burnt filmstrip from which a cloud of smoke emanates, a hospital room with still-warm sheets, anxiolytics meticulously laid out on a bedside table. However, the hovering inertia may turn reassuring in the form of the permanently frozen smile of a pop icon, a bouquet in saturated colors, the halo of a garland of flowers. The anxiety in question is above all a state of watchfulness. Although the gestures and actions that inhabit the images are infra-thin, they have the capacity to keep us on our toes: coffee and fag in hand or gaze lost in the distance. If almost nothing happens in these "in-between spaces" where boredom lurks, the emptiness of a draught skimming across the skin makes us alive, feeling and longing, always on the alert.”
Audrey Illouz, curator
SHE SAYS IT’S THE HIGH ENERGY
Solo show at Amanda Wilkinson Gallery
as part of Condo London (2024)
Analog photographs printed on vinyl and Hahnemule Bright White 310g, framed.
Multiple formats.
«... and just as it’s always impossible to stand still while the universe continues to spin, it’s equally unthinkable to go on living for the beauty of the gesture, intolerable, moreover, not to look for a deeper reason, a subterranean murmur that would explain our being in the world, something that would transcend - and as we move forward, uncertain, in the terrors under the sea or in the depths of our cellars, searching for meaning but never finding it, a voice emerges in the clatter, something that tells us that it’s not beauty or horror that moors us here, nor our bodies or our skins, since we are limitless, it’s in the movement of all things that we reside forever, it’s to inhabit speed, she says, it’s the high energy...»
I CAME HERE TO RETRACE MY STEPS
in collaboration with Éléa-Jeanne Schmitter
Poush, Aubervilliers (2024) ︎ Maison des Arts de Chevilly Larue (2023) ︎
Various techniques, incl. : video, in situ installation, audio, analog photographs printed on seashells, on Hahnemule Bright White 310g, on waterproof tarpulin, on organza, on tissues.
Multiple formats.
Multiple formats.
"For those who create images, what are the ones that inhabit them? "I came here to retrace my steps" is an insular space, a common response to emptiness : if I were opened in two, what would be found there? Elea-Jeanne Schmitter and Nanténé Traoré seek a final place for what made them, for what shaped them, opened them, and then closed them. To retrace the reverse path, to return to one's steps patiently, to search in the past for what remains, what departs, and what does not return. It is a space of mourning, reflecting a necessary form of abandonment and creation between the two artists. Through archival images, reinvented objects, long- lost images, "I came here to retrace my steps" creates order, classifying, sorting, making beauty from what has long waited. Here, the two artists embark on an exploration at the heart of their identity and photographic and plastic practice, questioning what can truly be abandoned to a physical space. They question the weight and persistence of the archive and, through each of the works presented, invite the viewer to approach the vertigo of identity and explore the open and moving world of intimacy. This project speaks to all those for whom living is both difficult and precious. To those whose path is winding, obstructed, composed of multiverses stacking to infinity. More than a collaboration, the two artists offer common prisms for creation and support, pushing auto-fiction to its limits to achieve a necessary transformation of themselves.
Navigating between truth and falsehood, erecting multiple interior wallpapers, retracing absence, invoking ghosts, "I came here to retrace my steps" is an honest and multiple dialogue between two artists whose common obsession with the survival of images has been salvific.”
TU VAS PAS MUTER
Collection publique, CNAP (2023) ︎ Le Pavillon des Canaux, Paris (2023) ︎ Galerie Marcelle Alix, Paris (2023) ︎ Galerie Agent Troublant, Marseille (2022) ︎ Galerie Friedrichshain, Berlin (2022) ︎ Centre René Goscinny, Paris (2022) ︎ Magasins Généraux, Pantin (2022) ︎ Nuits Photographiques de Pierrevert (2022) ︎
Analog photographs printed on Hahnemule Bright White 310g, framed / on vinyl.
Multiple formats.
Multiple formats.
« Tu vas pas muter » is a visual and text archive of the trans* community, and how this community creates new ways of forming families and solidarity groups. This project focuses on homemade hormonal injections, as it is a very important part of the gender reaffirming process for trans people, and a very solemn moment of sharing with our close ones and celebrating ourselves.
This project began in march 2021, when I started to document a few sessions of homemade hormonal injections. I rapidly understood that it’s not just about hormones : it’s a very precious time for people, where they can exchange with individuals that share similar yet different stories. This medical gesture becomes a love one : towards ourselves, towards others, towards our community.
After one year and more than 40 documented sessions, I hope to pass on our life stories, and raise awareness of our beautiful ways of building strong communities of people that take care of one another.
UNE PAGE D’AMOUR
Trapaxala, Bayonne (2023) ︎ Paris + by Art Basel (2023) ︎ Galerie That’s What X Said, Bruxelles (2022) ︎
Analog photographs printed on Hahnemule Bright White 310g, framed.
Multiple formats.
“Une page d'amour” is a silver-based photographic project that aims to capture the everyday life of queer intimacy.
The photographer uses a catalogue of everyday gestures and motifs to tell the story of the safe spaces that queer people create in their private lives, placing a simple, sincere and tender narrative at the heart of the images.
With no staging or direction for the models, and using the participants' bedrooms as the only setting, this series seeks to get as close as possible to the reality of the people photographed, giving them the space they need to love each other without artifice. First archiving her own love story, with her current partner, the artist then turned exclusively to the call of volunteers to archive their own spaces of tenderness. The series allows itself to be carried away by the emotions provoked by these strangers, who choose to show themselves vulnerable, and to trust the photographic process put in place by Nanténé Traoré. By working in this way, the artist allows himself to explore new territories of intimacy, never seeking to impose an aesthetic or narrative charter, but allowing himself to be inspired, surprised and shaped by these partners of a life or a night, who tell their own story of tenderness in the space of a photograph.
NOTRE DAME DES FLEURS
Galerie Sultana (2023)
as part of the group show “Résistance des fluides III”
as part of the group show “Résistance des fluides III”
Analog photographs printed on vinyl
Multiple formats.
Multiple formats.
'Notre Dame des Fleurs' is a series of medium-format + 24x36mm analog photographs. It refers to the work of the same name by the writer and poet Jean Genet.The series explores masculinity, drawing on the codes of gay culture in the 80s and 90s. Visually inspired by the work of artists Pierre et Gilles, video artist James Bidgood, and the iconography of fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, it takes a different direction from the hyper-sexualised codes of its predecessors. Using the artefacts of the 'new masculinity' created in particular by the homosexual and trans communities, this series uses a fixed frame (light + accessories) in which the participant is able to stage himself, choosing through his posture and his bouquet what he wishes to communicate through his portrait.
The re-appropriation of these aesthetic codes and their de-contextualisation suggest ways of reflecting on the imagery of masculinity and the different spaces of resistance that are created when a so-called dissident masculinity is performed. The aim of this series is to construct a frank imagery that is provocative in its sensitivity, hiding beneath its apparent simplicity portraits of a generation whose relationship to image and body touches on fragile spaces: gender class, social class, racial class.
This visual work is accompanied by texts written by the participants, who, through their personal stories and reflections, offer different readings of what masculinity outside social norms implies. The series is still a work in progress, and aims to build a real archive of these multiple masculinities, seeking over the long term more and more different testimonies, in order to create a more accurate panel of what being a 'boy' outside the norm can mean today.
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STRANGERS ARE EASY TO LIKE
Galerie Particule, Lyon (2021)
as part of the duo show “Et moi aussi je me transforme”
as part of the duo show “Et moi aussi je me transforme”
Analog photographs printed on Baryta 305g
Multiple formats.
At the end of 2020, I'm putting out a call on the networks for models to shoot black and white portraits. I didn't really know what I wanted to photograph, apart from people, so that's what I did. From friends of friends to more or less distant acquaintances, the call spread and I spent the next three years taking photos of the people who contacted me. These commissions for private individuals now make up a large part of my professional activity. This selection of portraits shows strangers who have remained unknown, strangers who have become friends, friends I've never seen again, close friends, people passing through and people I've found again after several years being apart.
This collection of faces is always under construction, and over the years it becomes a panel of what speaks to me about the other person. “You're right, strangers are easy to like", sings Ninja in the song "Hold yr terror close", by the English group The Go Team. Strangers are easy to like, and for the duration of a photo shoot we become empathic with their stories, their faces and what they have to offer us. This archival work also crystallises the photographer's efforts to connect with his or her models, and succeed in encapsulating the essence of them in the shortest possible time.
UNCLASSIFIED WORK FEATURED IN GROUP SHOWS AND FAIRS
Frieze London
Regent Park, London
2024
At Galerie Sultana’s booth, with works of Jean Claracq, Paul Maheke, Benoît Piéron, Gal Schindler, P Staff.
Analog photographs printed on velvet, mounted on wood
Multiple formats.
🥺🥺🥺
Galerie Sultana, Arles
2024
With works of Kevin Blinderman, Jean Claracq, Adrien Fregosi, Ash Love, Paul Maheke, Olivier Millagou, Charlemagne Palestine, Benoît Piéron, Gal Schindler,P. Staff, Sophie Varin
Analog photographs printed on fabric
Multiple formats.
Basel Social Club
Basel2024
Analog photographs printed on fabric.
Multiple formats.
Contre-Soirées
Césure, Paris2024
L’aube je t’aime, in collaboration with L. Camus Govoroff
video (12:27)
L. is haunted by dawn, Nanténé by night. L. walks between dog and wolf when Nanténé wakes up at midnight. L. and Nanténé are not the same age, but they could have crossed paths dozens of times. Yet their stories of consumption have never touched each other - and strangely enough, a few years apart, a few familiar faces and commonplaces can be found. When they begin to write to each other, there is no other idea than to put into words a sobriety that they have shared, in search of what remains of their nocturnal part.
L'aube je t'aime is a virtual discussion between these two friends who met long after the good old days, the days of coke stains on mirrors and days spent too late at La Concrète. Mail after mail, they tirelessly search for common ground in each other's memories. Conceived as a voyage through their respective nights, this epistolary conversation invites us to reflect on everything that revolves around sobriety, and everything that brings them together today: solitude, boredom, time-spaces that are being closed, and a new-found festivity. By sharing their aftermath, their reflections and their memories, the two artists are seeking to build bridges between two lives that have already all but faded away. Far removed from the idea of any kind of healing, l'aube je t'aime investigates our part of the night, even when we no longer walk through it - and how to think about the aftermath, with all its contradictions, frustrations and brief moments of acalm.
Nous buvons le soleil
Galerie Sultana, Arles
with the participation of galleries
Marcelle Alix & Galerie Air de Paris
2023
with works of Jesse Darling,Donna Gottschalk & Dorothy Iannone
Analog photographs printed on Hahnemule Bright White 310g, framed. Multiple formats.
with the participation of galleries
Marcelle Alix & Galerie Air de Paris
2023
with works of Jesse Darling,Donna Gottschalk & Dorothy Iannone
Analog photographs printed on Hahnemule Bright White 310g, framed. Multiple formats.
Résistance des Fluides II
Galerie Marcelle Alix2023
With works of Charles Carmichel, Zoe Heselton, Damien Rouxel, H•Alix Sanyas Mourrier, Alireza Shojaian, Victoria Soufflet
Analog photographs printed on Hahnemule Bright White 310g, framed. Multiple formats.
Analog photographs printed on Hahnemule Bright White 310g, framed. Multiple formats.
Résistance des Fluides I
Galerie Air de Paris2022
With works of H•Alix Sanyas Mourrier, Charles Carmichel, Zoe Heselton, Valentin Noujaïm, Aurélien Potier, Damien Rouxel, Alireza Shojaian, Victoria Soufflet, etaïnn zwer
︎︎︎ PUBLISHED
Jesse Darling : In Limbo
Series for Numéro Art #14 (FR)2024
TRANS SEXUALITY
Series for Almanac Press (FIN)2023
