GÉRARD COLLIN-THIÉBAUT — Les Yeux noirs — Musée Nicéphore Niépce, Chalon-sur-Saône, 2004

Invitation issued for Gérard Collin-Thiébaut's exhibition Les Yeux noirs at the Musée Nicéphore Niépce, Chalon-sur-Saône, opening 22 October 2004 and running to 30 January 2005.

The invitation conceals a veiled photographic portrait behind a dense red cover. The title is distributed across outlined keys resembling an early computer interface, positioning the image between portrait, entry and classified information. Image, title, dates and institutional credits are compressed into a small folded support: the exhibition leaving the museum as a portable unit of information, collection and memory.

Collin-Thiébaut's practice has long treated reproduction, copying and classification as artistic operations. From early audiovisual works assembled from existing photographic and drawn material to Mes oisivetés — an accumulated inventory of postcards, catalogues, prospectuses, tourist guides and other minor objects — he has used the apparently secondary materials of culture to construct another form of historical record. Produced by a museum devoted to photography, the invitation carries that logic into circulation.

Offset-printed folded card; red-and-black typographic exterior with photographic image and exhibition details within. 12 × 12 cm; 12 × 24 cm unfolded. Condition: very good; light rubbing, surface scratches and handling marks to the red covers; interior well preserved.

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