Green White Red
A Perfume of Italy in the Collection of Frac Aquitaine

curated by Claire Jacquet

7th May - 31st July 2011

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, Collezione Maramotti has invited Frac Aquitaine to exhibit their important photographic collection in the event Fotografia Europea to be held in Reggio Emilia in spring 2011.

The exhibition represents the first collaboration for the two institutions within the programme of cultural cooperation between the twinned regions of Aquitaine and Emilia-Romagna.

The exhibition Green White Red. A Perfume of Italy in the Collection of Frac Aquitaine has been conceived as an articulated course through the history of European and American photography, from the end of the avant-garde in the Thirties to the present day.

Drawing its inspiration from the three colours of the Italian flag – green, white and red – the exhibition develops along three chapters within a wider history of humanity.

Ninety images displayed in three sections where each colour is played evocatively. Green (A part of nature) explores the themes of nature and order in the landscape; White (Times of innocence or silence) tells of a suspended time where everything can start or recommence; Red (Between Passion and Conflicts) embraces intimate and social feelings and tragedies, working them out in a universal dimension.


Homage paid to Italian identity, with its suggestive portrait becoming history of universally-shared contemplation, actions and emotions.
In the Green section, contemplative works by Sudek link up with a painting tradition where the landscape representation is governed by precise compositional rules; then follows a “crossing of the landscape” (Fulton, Long), or an action brought onto landscape itself (Pfahl), or one where the natural dimension is developed in parallel with inner and psychic dimensions (Faucon). Then comes Webb's wandering gaze moving away from the documentary feature of photography to build real scenarios in studio settings, alongside Allouche's vision in whose works the eye focusses on what disappears and conveys a feeling of loss and mourning, or Bastard's images where landscape is at the same time a "natural and cultural construction" while being inhabited by a stratification of images drawn from old geography and history manuals.

In the White section, white is the colour of silence before or after chaos where the world is returned to us in a state of disquieting otherness (Groover), or exhibited in a rigorous documentary neutrality (Ruff, Evans). White is also subjective cartography of all the "white" states linked to childhood (Cartier Bresson, Arbus, Sander) or the welcoming sweetness of women's worlds (Callahan, Gibson, Seidner, Michals), the embodiment of a surrealist reverie (Álvarez Bravo), or the nostalgia for an Arcadia which today has been left behind forever (Thormann, Descamps, Bonetti).
In the Red section, red evokes exacerbated feelings: from passion to violence.

Red is attraction and seductive power (Sherman) to the point of vertigo (Seidner), but also danger and toxicity (Gilbert & George, Jouve); red is conflict, which is dramatically bloody, documented (Sander, Álvarez Bravo) or evoked through a pathway of memory (Boltanski). Red is also tension lying behind the hope of possibly reconciling opposite feelings, between heart and mind, further highlighting its contradictions (Cadieux).

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue in three languages, published by Silvana Editoriale, featuring the complete documentary summary of exhibited works, a critical contribution by Claire Jacquet and the interviews with three artists whose works are on exhibit. The catalogue and the exhibition have been produced with the contribution of Emilia-Romagna Region and of Aquitaine Region.


Works by
D. Allouche, P. Bastard, A. Claass, B. Faucon, H. Fulton, P.A. Gette, L. Ghirri, J. Groover, R. Long, J.L. Mylayne, J. Pfahl, J. Sudek, H. Trülzsch, B. Webb, H. Zobernig, M. Álvarez Bravo, D. Arbus, Bauhaus Dessau, M. Bonetti, H. Callahan, H. Cartier-Bresson, L. Clark, Clegg & Guttmann, B. Descamps, W. Evans, P. Fischli & D. Weiss, R. Frank, L. Friedlander, R. Gibson, P. Gioli, Izis, A. Kertész, W. Klein, K. Knorr, D. Michals, T. Ruff, A. Sander, D. Seidner, O. Thormann, D. Turbeville, E. Weston, C. Boltanski, G. Cadieux, Gilbert & George, V. Jouve, J. Koons, U. Lüthi, Made in Éric, A. Serrano, C. Sherman.

Opening 7th May 2011, h 6:30 pm.

8th May – 31st July 2011
The exhibition, with free admittance, may be visited in the opening hours of the permanent collection.
Thursday and Friday 2:30 - 6:30 pm
Saturday and Sunday 10:30 am - 6:30 pm