Rémanence (2012)

As part of a succession of contemporary photography exhibitions, Jean-Baptiste Huynh presented a series of previously unseen photographs inspired by the collections at the Louvre Museum. He followed other artists including Patrick Faigenbaum, Jean-Luc Moulène, Candida Höfer, Christian Milovanoff et Mimmo Jodice. This ensemble of XXL prints taken from analogue photos and mounted on diasec offers an almost abstract perspective of objects, sculptures, and paintings, all carefully selected from the museum’s different departments. With pieces including an amulet, a gold-leaf mask, a bowl, a sieve, a landscape, and a portrait, the artist chose works that symbolized the idea of “crossing over.” He also focused on works with transmissible value that could function like reflectors of light.

Jean-Baptiste Huynh chose to recreate a universal journey across the Louvre through this sensitive, intimate inventory. Each new image was inspired by a detail or particularity such as changes made by the passing of time, nuances of oxidation, the velvety appearance of marble, or the strength perceived in a pupil. Resized within the photograph, each work was placed in orbit, pushed into a state of levitation and exalted in its greatness like a cultural object demanding reflection.