Overall, it demonstrates the importance of Paris in a free and rich body of work, which never follows easy paths and wonderfully intertwines documentary and fiction. The fruit of over two years of research, the exhibition draws mainly on Agnès Varda's photography collection and the Ciné-Tamaris archives. It combines photography and film cells through a collection of 130 photographs, some of which are unpublished, and film clips shot entirely or partially in Paris. It also contains publications, documents, objects belonging to the artist, posters, photographs from the tour and a sculpture by Nini.
The courtyard study in Paris
After revealing the beginnings of Agnès Varda's career as a photographer, the exhibition offers an initial immersion in the courtyard-studio, at the time when it served as a photography studio, a developing and printing laboratory, and the venue for her first solo exhibition in 1954. The courtyard itself is revisited in the 60s, when Agnès Varda shared it with director Jacques Demy, and was frequented by film personalities after having previously hosted theater personalities.
The exhibition then presents a collection of photographs that highlight the artist's nonconformist, ironic and bizarre perspective on the people and streets of the capital. Agnès Varda has in fact responded to numerous commissions, in particular for portraits, but also for reportage, which she handles in a unique and original way. The director's gaze on Paris is evoked in a chronological and thematic path that highlights films shot entirely in Paris, starting with Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962). The city is filmed in harmony with the feelings experienced by the young woman. This part of the exhibition evokes two other films in which Paris is used to describe the emotions of the characters: an extract from the short film Les fiancés du pont MacDonald (1962) and photographs from the set of Loin du Vietnam (1967). Through a selection of excerpts from feature films and short films, some unpublished or unfinished, the exhibition also questions the way in which Agnès Varda's camera explores the city and shows her passion for urban details, invisible to hasty eyes.
The themes of the exhibition
The exhibition continues with themes dear to the artist, such as her attention to people, especially women and those living on the margins, each time creating links between the work of the photographer and that of the director. For the film L'une chante l'autre pas (1977), which tells the story of the emancipation of two women who conquer freedom and truth, Agnès Varda recreated the shop of a Parisian photographer. To do so, she created a series of female portraits, 12 of which will be exceptionally re-presented in the exhibition. The exhibition also reveals the project of the photo book L'opéra-Mouffe, illustrating songs about the Mouffetard neighborhood, which in 1958 became a short film that explores the contradictory feelings experienced by a pregnant woman in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Paris. It also presents Daguerreotypes (1975), a documentary filmed along Rue Daguerre in which Agnès Varda creates a series of portraits of the shopkeepers of her neighborhood. The exhibition ends with portraits of the artist, photographed and filmed in his courtyard-studio transformed into a garden, from which he exhibited his works while cultivating a varied personality. A book with essays by the curators and members of the scientific committee is published by Éditions Paris Musées
Cover photo: Detail Self-portrait of Agnès Varda in collaboration with Suzanne Fournier, 1956, Studio photographique rue Daguerre Paris 14 © Succession Agnès Varda. Fonds Agnès Varda joined the Institute for photography of the Hauts de France
