Le silence – de la série Vanités, tirage Lambda sur papier chromogène, 120 x 80 cm, photographie 2017, tirage 2018 © JC Ballot

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BALLOT

Jean-Christophe Ballot is an Architect (D.P.L.G.), who graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs as well as FEMIS and completed a residency in 1991 at the Villa Medicis. His work concerns itself with space, from urban and industrial landscapes to natural settings filled with spirituality, he settles himself in places of memories.

"My photographs question memory in relation to the history of these places and their transformations. I use the void as an exercise, as it is at the center of my photographs and additionally within my reflection. I am looking to suspend time and create contemplative photographs."

He has captured an important series of photographs while enjoying exceptional landscapes in the mountains, the village of Saorge, Roya Valley and its religious heritage, Mercantour National Park, and the Valley of Wonders. His work oscillates between still life and installation. On one side he develops a kind of narrative (he is also a film director) when creating his delicate compositions, by inventing a story which could have happened that he has "discovered" by coincidence. On the other, it affirms the gesture of the artist, an intervention in the space and thus, in the image, while assuming the presence of photographic props or baroque theatricality.

EXPOSITIONS

2018
L’impermanence, sculptures and pictures, with Catherine Wilkening, Loo&Lou Gallery, Paris, France.
L’esprit des lieux (exposition collective), Curator Susana Gallego-Cesta, Petit Palais, Paris, France.
La photographie française existe… je l’ai rencontrée, group exhibition, Curator Jean-Luc Monterosso, Maison Européenne de la photographie, Paris France.
2017
Vanités, rituels funéraires en pays Toraja, Abbaye du Thoronet, Le Thoronet, France.
Paysages français, Curators Héloïse Cornésa et Raphaël Bertho,National Library, Paris, France.
2016
Les dormeurs de Saint Denis, Forteresse Pierre et Paul, Saint Pétersbourg, Russia.
Les serres d’Auteuil,Library Marmottan, Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
2015
Paysages Australiens, Royal Academy of Fine-Arts, Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, France.
Œuvre sur l’œuvre, Musée Le Grand Curtius, Liège, Belgium.
2012
Le Musée dans le musée, Musée d’art contemporain de Thessalonique, Thessalonique, Greece.
2011
Le Louvre transfiguré, Musée national de Damas, Syria.
2009
Paris-Chicago, Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, United-States.
2008
Urban Landscapes de Berlin à Shanghaï, Maison européenne de la photographie, Paris, France.
2007
Île Seguin, paysage avec figures absentes, space Landowski, Boulogne-Billancourt, France.
2003
La Métamorphose du Louvre, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.
2001
Mont Athos, National Library, Paris, France.