Everything began in the summer of 1995, when Gilbert Garcin, recently retired but quite simply wanting a second life, decided to launch into photography and, in order to so, participated in classes at the Rencontres d’Arles. Here he practised photomontage, which would be his first source of inspiration. From that time on, using himself as a stand-in, he imagined a universal character whose initial outfit could have been borrowed from Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot. The Gilbert Garcin character grew into an ambiguous embodiment of himself, through which he acted out staged, deceptively ludicrous situations, which he described as ‘small philosophies’, in the style of the great Alfred Hitchcock.
His work casts its spell because Gilbert Garcin shows us obvious things that concern us all: life passing by, the fleeting nature of time, the tenacity required to continue Hence, he recalls in images, along with the help of evocative titles, that it is preferable to ‘do one’s best’ and to ‘know one’s limits’, because, deep down, all we’re doing is ‘replaying old familiar tunes’, those of Sisyphus and Atlas.
His work casts its spell because Gilbert Garcin shows us obvious things that concern us all: life passing by, the fleeting nature of time, the tenacity required to continue Hence, he recalls in images, along with the help of evocative titles, that it is preferable to ‘do one’s best’ and to ‘know one’s limits’, because, deep down, all we’re doing is ‘replaying old familiar tunes’, those of Sisyphus and Atlas.
Christine Ollier, director of Les filles du calvaire gallery.
Gilbert Garcin
Photographe
Gilbert Garcin native of Provence, began to make photographs at retirement. After an internship in Arles he discovered photomontage, where he features in different situations, in landscapes unreal. His singular style: its small theatrical feature situations have in common derision, the absurdity of the situation and a humanoid humor that sometimes recalls the theater of the absurd, by Eugène Ionesco.
Coffret G.G.
Gilbert Garcin
Yves Gerbal, Marie Darrieussecq, Vincent Josse
Faire de son mieux
Gilbert Garcin
Yves Gerbal, Marie Darrieussecq
Lorsque le vent viendra
Gilbert Garcin
Vincent Josse
Mister G.
Gilbert Garcin
Natacha Wolinski
Mister G
Gilbert Garcin
Yves Gerbal, Christine Ollier
Tout peut arriver
Gilbert Garcin
Magali Jauffret
El testimoni
Gilbert Garcin
Armelle Canitrot
Le témoin
Gilbert Garcin, Armelle Canitrot
Simulacres
Gilbert Garcin
Anne-Marie Garat
La vie est un théâtre
Gilbert Garcin, Yves Gerbal
