Since 2010, Nicolas Krief has been visiting museums during exhibitions set up.
He often observes, with humor, the extreme thoughtfulness shown towards the works, the technicality and precision of the gestures: a codified theatricality with liturgical dimensions.
Precious and admirable objects, handled according to strict rules and procedures, practiced by specialists: a genuine religiosity animates these moments held out of sight, where clerics and servants officiate in preparation for worship. Some have the task of deciding where the works should be placed in the exhibition, and how they should be presented; others have the task of handling, moving and installing them.
For the installers, these museum objects are very prosaic working materials that weigh and take up space; they are fragile and expensive objects that are often difficult to handle. As a result, hangers often maintain a physical proximity to the work, a secular and more timid reserve towards the art object.
For those who decide where and when the works will be hung - the same people who decided that they should be included in the exhibition - these museum pieces, chosen from among others, are objects of scholarly devotion, both as landmark works in the history of art and as precious possessions.
In these exhibitions, our relationship with Art, Order and the Sacred is at stake.
These photographs are snapshots. No staging, no lighting, no posing equipment.
Galerie Gallimard
Galerie Gallimard is an exhibition and sales venue for original works (illustrations, photographs, paintings, etc.), portraits of writers, limited editions, stationery and related products.
Located in the heart of Paris at the historic headquarters of Éditions Gallimard in the 7th arrondissement, it is devoted to contemporary artistic and literary creation as well as to the history of the arts and literature.