Edgar Morin wisely said: “But the beauty of love, (...) is to find one's truth through otherness”. Indeed, at Art Trope Gallery, we also believe that knowing our deepest selves and our society originates from our discovery of what we regard as different. This cursor, which each human being places according to his life, essentially defines who we are.

Art Trope Gallery is pleased to present its new exhibition called « Alterity I is an other » from July 4th to September 3rd, 2022. Its purpose is to point out how important knowledge of others is to the understanding of the individual self: it is a celebration of accepting ourselves and others.

* TWO GUEST ARTISTS *
- Norman Reedus : American Actor and Photographer
- Fabienne Berthaud : French Filmmaker, Writer and Photographer

* SEVEN PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM THE GALLERY *
- Antoine Buttafoghi
- Hélène Hubert
- Alain Le Chapelier
- Sabrina Le Roux
- Bruno Palisson
- Nathan Soulez-Larivière
- Charles Weber

Amongst its many functions, throughout its history, Art has also served as a window for human societies. Either of existing social groups with Gustave de Beaucorps portraits of the black families in Tangier or of perfect oneiric vision of Man with Francis Bacon's Portrait of Michel Leiris. The alterity is always highlighted in order to question us about who we are as viewers, not about what we see because any judgment on the other redefines the judge. Anthropologists, in their research and redefining of man in society, make otherness their main topic. Learning more about others means learning more about ourselves. Indeed, any representation of societies, however different they may be, reflects the richness of our species and the way we function. Thus, whether it is realistic or totally dreamlike, each work of art is a manifestation of our identity. It highlights our wishes, our fears, our connections, our morals, just as it seems to have nothing to do with us at all. Otherness and its investigation are a wealth of information about its seeker: when we define the other, our way of sorting what is like us from what is different, or what we consider as normal or not, shows.

For example, portraying the vegetal world is providing it with the humanity we find in it. Underlining the shadowed curves creates an omnipresent vision of the body in everything occurring in our daily lives and reveals the importance of the body in our societies. The question then arises as to how each artistic process actually reflects information about the artist himself. The artist, willingly or not, creates about himself, because by giving his voice and offering his testimony, he exists. This paradox of the other that characterises our ego is also found in the process of looking. Watching an unfamiliar work brings the viewer to think over himself, as he will instinctively attach familiar thoughts to it. Therefore, Altérité is elementary in art.

It is in this development and to present the importance of this notion of otherness that our artists, accompanied by Fabienne Berthaud and Norman Reedus, invite you to discover our exhibition from July 4th to September 3rd, 2022, within the Art Trope Gallery, located at 3 rue Elie Giraud in the center of Arles, a few steps from Fisheye Gallery.