Damien Peyret SWIM & STEAM Yours Gallery is pleased to announce the solo exhibition Swim & Steam by Damien Peyret. The opening night will be on 30th September and the exhibition may be visited from 1st October until 28th November 2010, during the opening hours of the gallery. The “Swim & Steam” project was first exhibited at Reykjavik’s Museum of Photography in 2007 and it will be displayed for the first time in Poland at Yours Gallery in Warsaw. Ever since Damien Peyret took up photography he tended to see it as an extension of his film work with the two arts engaged in a dialogue of some sort. The “Swim & Steam” project best exemplifies this creative relation. It came into being during the making of his award-winning film Un taxi pour Reykjavik. The harmonious dialogue did not deprive the photographic project of its autonomy and it emphasized the artist's interest, common for both the film and images, in the narrow strip of space where reality blends with fiction, with its unusual and ambiguous existence evidenced by nothing but photography. “Swim & Steam” consists of a series of images taken with the Polaroid SX70. The Polaroid aesthetics intensifies the sensation of having crossed the border of reality. Portraits of men and women soaking in steaming hot pools seem to be telling a story originating in a different world, peaceful and detached, where gravity does not interfere with people's lives. Peyret photographs his subject with tenderness leaving enough space for quiet contemplation and letting viewers draw on the calmness of the world and people portrayed. The Polaroid offers photographers a unique opportunity to create that misty turquoise ambience where details disperse in the water. Imperfection and chance are what makes so many artists drawn to Polaroid and it seems to be the perfect medium for Peyret who uses it to emphasise the transitory nature and unsteadiness of the state of floating in space. Damien Peyret (1961) works and lives in Paris. After graduating from School of Art he launched his own periodical called Trajectoire Visuelle and found employment in the advertising business. Since 1997, his artistic interests have centred around film production and photography. Peyret has also directed a number of documentary films for French television channels Arte and Canal +. His film A Taxi To Reykjavik was presented at many international film festivals. Peyret’s photographic works are exhibited primarily at Paris’s Spree Gallery.