Format Pola

On the occasion of ”Le Mois de la photo 2012” biennale in Paris, Polka Galerie is pleased to present "Format POLA", a group show on the theme of "Small is beautiful" submitted by Agnès de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, with the photographic works of Philippe Guionie, Sara Imloul, and Donata Wenders. "Format POLA" celebrates small format prints. Focused on the essence, it shows the very first intention of the artist.

In "Swimming in the Black Sea", Philippe Guionie follows in the footsteps of Kébaran, the stubborn character in Jules Vernes’ eponymous novel. During eight years (2004-2012), Guionie explored Kébaran’s fictional traces on the shore of the Black Sea.

"Délestage", produced in 2011 and 2012, constitutes a diary from his travel in N’Djamena’s streets. These black and white photographs translate the dusty atmosphere filled with white shadows of the Chadian capital that regularly suffers from electrical "délestages", i.e power outages.

Philippe Guionie, a trained historian, born in 1972, centers his photographic work on the themes of identity and memory, especially in Africa. For over ten years, he travelled and photographed sub-Saharan Africa. He focused his work on how identities are constructed ("Le tirailleur et les trois fleuves", 2008). He then continued this inquiry in Latin America where he questioned another ”Africa”, one that was born out of Spanish slavery. The photographer introduces two series of polaroids, which are poetic images of his journeys, entitled "Swimming in the Black Sea" and "Délestage".