Bettina Rheims : Can you find happiness

Curated by art critic and journalist Philippe Dagen and organised in collaboration with Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris, the exhibition presents more than ninety splendid images, divided into closely linked thematic sections, which afford an account of Bettina Rheims work between Chambre close 1991 and Shanghai 2004. Puoi trovare la felicità is articulated in eight different series, each one linked to the previous and pointing towards the successive series: advertising, the table, cinema, the novel, eroticism, la chambre close, dream and made in Japan are the stages of this journey through Bettina Rheims’ creative and colourful world. Moreover, FORMA presents the world premier of Olga: a completely new series of nine large format photographs exhibited in the Sala bianca.

Ninety four images of extraordinarily expressive strength, sometimes the glossy character and almost theatrical, ironic pantomime is borrowed from advertising and cinema; in other images the composition and chromatic choices are inspired by poised, artistic traditions and historical photography. Nudes are animated by the strength of purity and devotion, by sinful and arrogant expression, sometimes diabolical, mischievous or celestial, nevertheless devoid of any vulgarity and always absolutely ironic. Bettina Rheims tells the tale of disorganised and romantic heroines; loaded with pathos, wicked and perfect muses enchant the eyes, which cannot cease to examine the classical forms of the composition, the noisy, opulent colours.

A gallery of female perfection: women, more or less well-known to the public at large, statuesque models, actresses or singers, immersed in day-to-day scenes, in lewd poses. Monica Bellucci as Salomé pouring blood onto a plate; Jennifer Jean Leigh standing in pyjamas, holding a doll in an allegory of madness; Sharon Stone munching diamonds like Eve and the forbidden fruit, Bettina Rheims’ photography is always the product of long complicated operations that have nothing to do with the habitual simplicity of the photographic act. Her images are careful intellectual constructions; the visual fruit of attentive planning. Nothing is left to chance. «What I do is quite strange» says Bettina Rheims speaking of her work. In any case, being a stage designer, painter, director, scriptwriter … to define Bettina Rheims as a photographer seems very inadequate. In the words of Philippe Dagen: One would need to draw upon ancient and modern, sacred and profane, mythological and biblical iconography, plastic analysis, literary memories and, naturally considerations about the methods, techniques and practice of photography. All Bettina Rheims’ works require the same analytical tools, deserving a sufficiently vast cultural horizon, as all artworks deserve, independently of their material or medium.

Bettina Rheims
Can you find happiness
Kurator: Philippe Dagen