#Jean-Michel Mension

[rcvandenboogaard]

Een vreugdeloze bohème in de jaren vijftig

Toen ik klein was, in de jaren vijftig, waren er wel eens mensen die, staande voor een abstract schilderij, van Karel Appel bijvoorbeeld, zeiden: dat kan mijn kleine broertje ook. Dat was, en is niet waar natuurlijk: inderdaad kan iedereen met verf naar een doek smijten, maar kunst, in de zin van de juiste snaar raken, is iets anders. Toch schuilt er iets verleidelijks in de gedachte dat het maar…

[urbanmishmash]

The intimate images of Ed van der Elsken

Ed van der Elsken, Pierre Feuillette (Jean-Michel) and Paulette Vielhomme (Claudine) kissing at café Chez Moineau, Rue du Four, Paris, 1953. Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam © Ed van der Elsken / Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Over four decades, Dutch post-war photographer and filmmaker Ed van der Elsken (1925-1990) photographed the bohemian youth of Paris in the fifties, sought out the ‘authentic’ men and women in his native Amsterdam and in the streets of Tokyo and documented the tribal rituals and magical figures in the remote villages of Central Africa. The resulting images and films are an intimate, poetic ode to the countercultures, to the lost generations and to those on the fringes of society.

Ed van der Elsken, Vali Myers (Ann), Roberto Inigez-Morelosy (Manuel) and Geraldine Krongold (Geri), Paris, 1950. Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam © Ed van der Elsken / Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Ed van der Elsken retrospective: Exhibition at Jeu de Paume, Paris

Ed van der Elsken, Jean-Michel Mension (Pierre) and Auguste Hommel (Benny), Paris, 1953. Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam © Ed van der Elsken / Ed van der Elsken Estate

Seventeen years after his death, Jeu De Paume, Paris is showing a comprehensive retrospective of Ed van der Elsken’s diverse body of work. The exhibition ‘Ed van der Elsken – Camera in Love’ features more than 150 original prints, later colour prints, film excerpts and slideshows, montages and book dummies, contact sheets and other archival documentation taken over four decades.

Ed van der Elsken, Vali Myers (Ann) in front of her mirror, Paris, 1953. Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam © Ed van der Elsken / Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

The main focus of the exhibition is on the photographs that Ed van der Elsken made in Paris, Amsterdam and Tokyo, during his travels in Africa and while on a world tour with his wide in the 1960s. Photographs from his 1956 book Love on the Left Bank, contact sheets, book dummies, earlier publications and filmed memories of the protagonist Vali Myers are among the highlights of the show. His other remarkable books, including Bagara, Jazz and Sweet Life offer wonderful insights into his conscious and subjective approach to photography.

Buy exhibition catalogue, books and other resources>>

Van der Elsken’s films, excerpts of which are on show at the Jeu de Paume exhibition, are realistic and documentary in nature, often experimental in form and characterised by the presence of the filmmaker himself. The exhibition also includes his slide shows, particularly Eye Love You and Tokyo Symphony, a posthumously completed ode to the city he loved and visited many times.

Ed van der Elsken, Refugee girl, Hong Kong, 1959-1960. Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam © Ed van der Elsken / Special Collections Department of Leiden University.

The exhibition ‘Ed van der Elsken – Camera in Love‘ was previously on view at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and after Jeu de Paume in Paris, will move to the Fundación Mapfre in Madrid in 2018.

Ed van der Elsken, Girl in metro, Tokyo, 1981. Nederlands Fotomuseum Rotterdam © Ed van der Elsken / Collection Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

The exhibition Ed van der Elsken: Camera in Love is on view at Jeu de Paume, 1, place de la Concorde, Paris until September 24, 2017. Details>>. The exhibition will travel to Fundación Mapfre in Madrid in 2018. 

The post The intimate images of Ed van der Elsken appeared first on URBAN MISHMASH | Paris.

from URBAN MISHMASH | Paris https://www.urbanmishmash.com/paris/art-culture/exhibitions/ed-van-der-elsken-photography-retrospective/

[mykristeva]

Ed van der Elsken, détail du pantalon de Jean-Michel Mension où l'on peut lire : "L'internationale lettriste ne passera pas". Paris, 1951  

[lostfunzones]

“The problem is not that they kill us, but that they make us live this way.”

Jean-Michel Mension, The Tribe

[booklegger]

Chez Moineau

Avant de s’installer au 10 rue Guénégaud, le cabaret Chez Moineau se tenait au 22 rue du Four. C’était en 1949. Durant la seconde moitié des années 50, les époux Moineau quittent la rue du four pour la rue Guénégaud, au numéro 10. Les propriétaires de cette « boite à couscous, boite à chansons » sont de sacrés personnages : madame Moineau ressemble à la comédienne Pauline Carton, elle ignore toute règle d’hygiène, les chats vagabondent librement dans le restaurant jusqu’à se coucher dans les assiettes pleines de semoule ! En septembre 1961, le lieu ferme ses portes pour devenir Le Pachanga. En 1973, Jean Mauzac et Christian Mousset créent à cette adresse un cabaret café-théâtre Le jour de fête. L’aventure tourne court. Un piano-bar occupe actuellement l’endroit.

Lire là-dessus La Tribu de Jean-Michel Mension (chez Allia)

[emanationsoftheyellowsign]

nothingness perpetually sought is, simply, our life. decartes has as much value as a gardener. only one movement is possible: that I be the plague and hand out the buboes.

Jean-Michel Mension, General Strike (1953).