Après Eden

One of a series of annual tributes to private collecting featuring international figures held by Maison Rouge, Arthur Walther’s photograph collection is among the most significant and striking in existence.

Samuel Fosso, African Spirits, 2008 Courtesy The Walther Collection and Jean Marc Patras / Paris

The exhibition offers an opportunity to reflect on the tastes and historicisation of recent museography. The collection originated in 1990, when its owner followed the advice and indelible line traced by Bernd and Hilla Becher to become a photographer, collector and expert of international acclaim.

Nobuyoshi Araki, 101 Works for Robert Frank (Private Diary), 1993 Courtesy The Walther Collection and Anton Kern Gallery, New York — **Top:** Samuel Fosso, *African Spirits*, 2008. Courtesy The Walther Collection and Jean Marc Patras / Paris. Left Malcom X, right Angela Davis. **Above:** Nobuyoshi Araki, *101 Works for Robert Frank (Private Diary)*, 1993. Courtesy The Walther Collection and Anton Kern Gallery, New York

The masters of the German school boosted his personal taste with an unparalleled technical awareness of the medium and conceptual rigour. Both the Collection’s headquarters near Ulm and the Project Room in New York have, over the last ten years, offered a succession of exploratory theme exhibitions that were not merely varying takes on a huge catalogue. This archive of masterpieces has broad horizons and a far-reaching geography. From Blossfeldt to Araki passing via Avedon and Malick Sidibé, every new project and material added to it is a continuum of emotions.

Mikhael Subotzky, Mark, Hout Bay, 2005 Courtesy The Walther Collection and the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg — Mikhael Subotzky, *Mark, Hout Bay*, 2005. Courtesy The Walther Collection and the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

Behind the risk of being caught up in the tangle of great names lies an exquisite method of self-immersion in the meticulous work of great photographers. Quality is the key to an impressive list that is constantly being rewritten around specific geographical zones: Africa, America and China. It is a journey visiting fascinating conceptual destinations that prove just as effective as the names and procedural mechanisms of the artists concerned.

Whether they are historicised works such as those by Ed Ruscha or more recent ones like those by Ai Wei Wei, the whole collection is in constant flux. This effective and new version on show in Paris brings with it another component, which is its curator Simon Njami’s precious narrative skill.

Ai Weiwei, Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995 Courtesy The Walther Collection and Lisson Gallery — Ai Weiwei, *Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn*, 1995 Courtesy The Walther Collection and Lisson Gallery. One image of a series of three

“Après Eden” is the title of a new, long story that unfolds in several chapters, in which timeless fragments gathered by Arthur Walther and rearranged by the curator give the subject a new position in the photograph. Having discarded the idea of the stereotypic anecdote, the photographic medium ceases to be such and is configured to reveal the human condition. The actual exit from Eden is not simply a metaphor of existing perception but a sequence of micro-stories probing the remotest possible ways of visiting the history of recent photography.

From garden to body, from mask to comparison with others, you are ever less voyeur and progressively held more responsible in a novel that immerses you in an important moment of contemporary culture. The fable pieced together by the curator starts with a bold decision to abandon boundaries and prohibitions. The choices are daring and demolish the rhetoric that normally defines photography and shapes its contours; labels such as documentary, artistic, sociological and fashionable vanish. The consolidated field of comparison collapses and it is as if the revolutionary aspect of the photographic medium has re-appropriated reality.

Malick Sidibé, A la Bagnade au fleuve Niger, 1973; Les Amis, 1976 Courtesy The Walther Collection and MAGNIN-A, Paris — Malick Sidibé, *A la Bagnade au fleuve Niger*, 1973; *Les Amis*, 1976. Courtesy The Walther Collection and MAGNIN-A, Paris

The pictures on display are strong forms in the hands of an illusionist and skilful cheat who knows how to captivate. You do not know if you are dealing with a superlative pack fixed by Njami’s intelligent and unprecedented choices but that tricks your perception when great classics, from August Sanders to Muybridge, are dealt out alternately. You have to imagine that it is the collector who allowed him to fast shuffle the cards

Nonetheless, it is a pleasure that transports you to the rhythm of Nobuyoshi Araki’s Private Diaries and the rarefied atmosphere of Yang Fudong’s video installation. At times, you have the impression you are visiting a great lesson on the specialist terrain of African photography and its diaspora, of which Simon Njami is an absolute authority. You become tied down by David Goldblatt’s fascinating research or trapped in the long cadence of Santu Mofokeng’s works in progress. Whether flipping through the anonymous original photographic archives or re-contextualising the hyper-politicised pictures in the personal research of photographers such as Richard Avedon and Samuel Fosso, you cannot but enjoy the mesh subtending the general plan of the exhibition.

Guy Tillim, Grande Hotel, Beira, Mozambique, from “Avenue Patrice Lumumba,” 2007 Courtesy The Walther Collection and Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg — Guy Tillim, *Grande Hotel, Beira, Mozambique*, from “Avenue Patrice Lumumba,” 2007. Courtesy The Walther Collection and Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg

Whether it is the perfect simple shot or the complex dynamic of the many installations, you are constantly immersed in a series of stunning panoramas. The one dedicated to the Pont City building by Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse, offering a breathtaking view of Johannesburg and its history of abandon, puts the dreams of modernism back in perspective once and for all. The photograph ceases to appear as a neutral and immaculate filter but follows humanity in its error-filled destiny.

Bernd and Hilla Becher, Kies- und Schotterwerke (Gravel Plants), 1988-2001 Courtesy The Walther Collection and Sonnabend Gallery — Bernd and Hilla Becher, *Kies- und Schotterwerke (Gravel Plants)*, 1988-2001. Courtesy The Walther Collection and Sonnabend Gallery

Après Eden

One of a series of annual tributes to private collecting featuring international figures held by Maison Rouge, Arthur Walther’s photograph collection is among the most significant and striking in existence.

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