Opening today at the Opera Gallery London Contemporary Emotion is an exhibition of work – both new and old – from artists who have evoked intense emotion throughout their work and careers. Featuring the likes of Anish Kapoor, Andy Warhol, Joe Black, Ron Arad, Yayoi Kusama and Gérard Rancinan the exhibition will run until March 9th. We sit down with French photographer Gérard Rancinan whose new work – exclusively shown on Hunger TV – explores chaos in society.
EXPLAIN THE WORK IN THE SHOW TO US, WHAT INSPIRED IT?
This new body of work is again the result of a sharp look on our time, its chaos and its life-giving strength. Without chaos, there is no life, the uniformisation of a humanity leads to its death. And that’s exactly what I want to talk about here. I draw my inspiration from the news, from the movements of our era, from the sudden jolts of our humanity, from its hesitations to throw itself towards the future, but my inspiration also lies in my need to point at the current drifting of traditional and new media.
PHOTOGRAPHY HAS HAS CHANGED SO MUCH IN RECENT YEARS, EVERYONE WITH A CAMERA PHONE IS A PHOTOGRAPHER. DO YOU THINK THIS IS A POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE FOR THE ART FORM?
It’s rather positive, it’s the main medium nowadays and photography is thus made more popular, more accessible, probably more easily understood, and everyone can compare their talent to that of the best photographers! In any case, I hope that this can create art vocations. Isn’t being the witness of an ‘uncatchable’ time the most important thing for a contemporary artist?
YOU HAVE EXHIBITED IN COUNTRIES AND CITIES ALL OVER THE WORLD – HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED A DIFFERENCE IN THE WAY THAT DIFFERENT COUNTRIES VIEW OR INTERPRET YOUR WORK?
No, not really, my work is an universal view on things, I talk about the “Man” in its widest meaning. Therefore, the views on my work and the reactions it gets, are very similar everywhere I show it.
WHAT CONTINUES TO INSPIRE YOU?
My contemporaries, the news, the often extravagant projects of our societies, the powerlessness of the strong and the strength of the weak, the crumbling of ancient values at the birth of a new humanity that is being designed, in short everything that makes the modern man!
WHAT ARE YOU HUNGRY FOR?
What gives me my hunger is the curiosity that remains the same within me. I am hungry for these new “human territories” that open themselves to us in a world where everything is changing drastically and with fantastic speed. In his history, the human has never invented, innovated, explored more than we have for the last 50 years. Being part of that journey, being an actor, a witness of it all, it is a privilege that I just cannot miss.
See more here.
