Renowned for photographs of the female body that counter stereotypical views of feminine beauty, Simond will show a new ensemble of videos and photos that introduce music into her work for the first time. The exhibition’s centrepiece is a diptych combining video and still photography, in a visual and sound dialogue between two young women who have never met in person: a young Ukrainian dancer and an Irish harpist.Focusing on intimate close-up, off-kilter snapshots, Simond finds nuances in fleeting gestures and facial expressions These become the focus of mysterious, closely cropped images that invite the viewer into the scene, exploring the theme of human connection. The work, which combines Simond’s images with footage by the two young women, whom she asked to film themselves inspired by her approach, also speaks to ideas of staging and performance, improvisation and chance.

This new project is a prolongation of the artist’s first book, Rayon Vert (2018) – the title, which evokes Éric Rohmer’s 1986 film, based on Jules Verne’s eponymous 1882 novel, refers to an optical phenomenon known as the green ray – an unexpected flash of colour on the horizon at twilight, believed to bring a moment of clarity for those who see it, but which in reality, is far more elusive.

The exhibition will also include a new series of short films made in collaboration with a French musician in an empty space who seems to appear and disappear, creating a ghostly presence.

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After studying aesthetics and film theory at the University of Lausanne, Senta Simond received a Master’s degree in Photography at ECAL in Lausanne, Switzerland. A finalist for the Aperture/Paris Photo book award, she was also selected for the British Journal of Photography ‘Ones to watch’, Foam Talent and Swiss Design Awards. Her work has been in solo shows at Foam Museum, Danziger Gallery (New York) and Webber (New York/London), and in group shows in Tokyo, London, Bienne, and Basel. She is represented by Webber (New York/London).

Simond has also been working as a fashion photographer since 2018. Born in Geneva, she lives and works in Paris.

© Senta Simond, 2023

My-Lan Hoang-Thuy’s artistic practice encompasses a variety of forms, blurring the boundaries between different media, using photography as well as painting, drawing, and graphic art in her compositions. Although the works exhibited here all have a similar structure – they are made with acrylic paint, with the artist mixing the colours herself – they do not necessarily follow a predefined hierarchy or blueprint.

On the walls of the Studio, wallpapered for the occasion with a cream-colored velvet fabric, Hoang-Thuy exhibits some sixty works produced over the last few years. Following a chromatic arrangement, the artist alternates colors and compositions where only her body, a recurring figure in the works presented here, establishes thematic continuity. The artist opposes the distinct apprehension of her body’s forms with a refusal in the form of games. She modulates her anatomy, lengthening or shortening it, diversifying her poses, thereby diverting our gaze. Alone, in a large-format work created especially for her exhibition at the MEP, Hoang-Thuy represents herself more legibly. In this photograph, she clearly holds the camera’s shutter release, reminding us that she exhibits according to her own rules.

On the occasion of this exhibition, a publication presenting all of My-Lan Hoang-Thuy’s works will be published by Bernard Chauveau.

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My-Lan Hoang-Thuy graduated in applied arts from École Duperré (2015) and Beaux-arts de Paris (2018). In 2018, she was nominated for the Prix des Amis des Beaux-Arts and awarded the Graduate Photography Prize. She has taken part in several group exhibitions, including the Salon de Montrouge (2018), the Artpress Biennale des Jeunes Artistes, Musée d’Art Moderne, Saint-Étienne (2020), Cloud Point, Paradis Row, London (2022) and on the occasion of Cartes blanches, Christie’s, Paris (2023). In 2022, the exhibition Belle Orchidée, Pissenlit Passable marks the beginning of a collaboration between the artist and Galerie Mitterrand. In spring 2024, the artist will take up residency at La Maison des arts Yishu 8 in Beijing.

My-Lan Hoang-Thuy, Papiers, Feuilles et Ampersands 11, 2020.
Photo : Axel Fried. Courtesy de l’artiste et de la Galerie Mitterrand © Adagp, Paris, 2023