Approche, the fair dedicated to experimenting with images
True to its intimate format and unique curatorial approach, the fair continues to showcase artists represented by galleries that push the boundaries of the photographic medium. This new edition confirms how experimentation with the image constitutes a fertile and essential ground for contemporary creation.
Fourteen solo exhibitions will be presented, featuring artists from diverse backgrounds and represented by as many French and international galleries. Driven by a desire to promote contemporary creation and the production of original and innovative works, we are pleased to present a selection of new works. Of the fourteen solo exhibitions, eight reveal previously unseen series, presented for the first time and highlighted in this 9th edition.
By employing sensitive, material, and conceptual approaches, the artists gathered in this edition explore photography as a space of tension: between appearance and disappearance, memory and fiction, surface and depth.
The desire to play with light and matter runs through the approaches of Pietro Bologna [LAB 1930. Fotografia contemporanea] and Sabatina Leccia [Galerie XII]. The former seeks to capture the essence of things by focusing on clarity and tactile materials, while the latter embroiders, superimposes, and perforates images that transform into visual bursts and inner landscapes, poised between vibration and abstraction.
Other plays of light and transparency take on a pictorial and graphic dimension in the work of Sophie Le Gendre [quand les fleurs nous sauvent], driven by a search for beauty in imperfection and a sense of wonder at the fragility of life. This luminous dialogue continues in the work of Denis Félix [Parallax], who lingers on textures and details to pay a subtle homage to the plant memory of forests.
Reeve Schumacher [LHOSTE], for his part, interested in the symbolic weight and evocative power of images, attempts to subvert and reconfigure them, offering us a fresh interpretation while revealing the invisible frequencies of our surroundings.
The desire to reveal a sensitive depth of time in landscapes is embodied in the work of Isabelle Ehrler [Galerie 127], who, by incorporating mineral matter collected from the shooting locations into the prints, freezes the image like a fossil and imbues it with a mystical aura. Other artists integrate natural elements as fundamental actors in their processes. Léonard Bourgois Beaulieu [Galerie du Jour agnès b.] thus develops lychenotypy, a process in which microorganisms and mineral formations interact directly with the light-sensitive surface, shaping the image in depth. Anna Katharina Scheidegger [PICTO LAB Residency], for her part, explores the very conditions of representation by working with the bioluminescent properties of phytoplankton, which acts as a veritable luminous agent on the photographic surface.
The desire to construct new visual narratives is expressed in the work of Julie Cockburn [Hopstreet Gallery] through the use of embroidery on old images, giving them a new interpretation, a new life. This transformative power of the artistic gesture is also found in the work of Emile Gostelie [Contour Gallery], who deconstructs and reassembles a single image to reveal infinite mutations, thus questioning perception and the construction of meaning. A critical look at our visual culture, at memory, and at our relationship to the past is evident in the work of the Dutch artist Sander Coers [Open Doors], who, using new technologies such as AI, blurs the lines between documentary and fiction, while challenging the visual codes of masculinity. The blurring of lines between reality and imagination remains central to the work of Vincent Lemaire [Galerie Dix9] with his imagined post-mortem portraits of Alan Turing, where historical fiction and photographic experimentation intertwine.
Turkish artist Mimiko Türkkan [Analix Forever] and Dutch-born Daphne van de Velde [Black Swan Gallery] both explore the body as a tool in the creation of artworks. Daphne van de Velde’s photographic sculptures express the tension between the inner and outer worlds, between desire and rejection, between solitude and connection. Mimiko Türkkan’s red cyanotypes, on the other hand, reveal a body in motion, undulating, a vehicle for experiences, transformations, and transcendence.
Finally, we are delighted to welcome the craft cooperative TCHIKEBE, founded in Marseille in 2012, which is presenting a selection of unique and singular works by Thu Van Tran and Thomas Mailaender. The kaleidoscopic vision of a mysterious landscape, marked by shifting colors in Thu Van Tran’s works, resonates with the eclectic collection of Thomas Mailaender’s “Lentils,” a universe that is both antiquated and colorful, where the artist imbues images from various magazines with new meaning.
In an effort to foster exchanges between artists and curators, the fair is extending its partnership with the C-E-A (French Association of Curators) for its 9th edition. A curator from C-E-A, selected following a call for applications, will be invited to discover the projects of the artists participating in the 9th edition of a ppr oc he, and then to write a text about the work of their chosen artist.
We are delighted to welcome, for the second consecutive year, PODA, La Petite Œuvre d’Art (The Small Work of Art), a unique initiative focused on the collection and display of photography. This collection now comprises more than 500 works by 21 artists, framed in small formats and presented in boxes designed as both display cases and exhibition supports. In collaboration with Émilia Genuardi, PODA is proposing a new partnership: three new artists from previous editions of the fair will join the collection and will be featured on the walls of the Molière gallery during this 9th edition.
Three satellite events will enrich the program:
Driven by a shared sensibility and often converging artistic choices, PhotoSaintGermain and a ppr oc he have, over the years, presented numerous artists together. This year, the PhotoSaintGermain festival and the a ppr oc he art fair have chosen to strengthen their ties through a unique collaboration: “Crossed Perspectives.” For this edition, a ppr oc he supports the exhibition of Sixtine de Thé, presented as part of PhotoSaintGermain. In response, PhotoSaintGermain is supporting the solo show of Léonard Bourgois Beaulieu at the a ppr oc he art fair. A fruitful dialogue between two leading photography events in Paris, a new dynamic that reflects their shared commitment to the contemporary art scene.
For the 5th edition of Dialogue, Fiammetta Horvat, daughter of Frank Horvat, director of the eponymous studio, invites Emilia Genuardi to imagine a dialogue between the Frank Horvat archives and contemporary photography. She chose to collaborate with the artist duo Édouard Taufenbach and Bastien Pourtout on this project: their sensitive, conceptual, and narrative practice resonates with the world and legacy of Frank Horvat.
Continuing the partnership with the Drawing Hotel, Emilia Genuardi invited the artist Jérôme Grivel to create an installation there. His work explores landscape, architecture, and the body, drawing on personal photographs, thus continuing the fair’s commitment to supporting unique artistic approaches.
The entire fair team invites you to join them from November 13 to 16 at Le Molière for the 9th edition of the a ppro oc he fair, and looks forward to seeing you at the various events planned for the end of the year.
