Christophe Raynaud de Lage, "The Present Eye", press conference of the 10 July 2022

Christophe Raynaud de Lage has been photographing the shows of the Festival d’Avignon for seventeen years now, both backstage and on. Courtyards, cloisters, gymnasiums, quarries, wind, heat, and rain are all part of the background for him… Day and night, he takes thousands of pictures destined to a strange life. They appear on the Festival’s website almost in real time on the night of the premiere, show up as illustrations for a news article the next day, and provide a touch of colour on social media throughout the Festival… A few weeks later, they accompany artists on international tours, before being collected by the Bibliothèque nationale de France a few years down the line. For L’œil présent (The Present Eye), the photographer chose for once not to follow the linearity of time. Here he calls on our senses, sight, touch, and hearing, with each image “a reminiscence, an incisive fragment” of a particular edition. An immersion into the living memory of the Festival, this exhibition offers a stroll from place to place, exploring the shows’ themes and points of view, providing mise en abyme and reflections. Christophe Raynaud de Lage wants the audience to lose themselves into those images, to feel and, why not, re-experience his festivals.