Open Your Eyes

For the first time, Les Abattoirs, Musée—Frac Occitanie Toulouse and the Galerie Le Château d’Eau are inviting visitors on a journey through their rich yet little-known photographic heritage. The exhibition presents a wide selection of photographic works from the collections of these two public art institutions, documenting major periods in the history of photography and its artists since the early twentieth century, while at the same time revealing the collections’ two, quite separate histories.

Since their creation, the public holdings of these two institutions have grown in keeping with an artistic approach specific to their respective characters. One—an art institution created in 2000 that brings together a museum and a Regional Fund for Contemporary Art (FRAC)—is devoted to modern and contemporary art. The other—founded in 1974 by photographer Jean Dieuzaide—is an iconic centre for modern and contemporary photography in the city of Toulouse.

This exhibition, which is being held at Les Abattoirs, offers visitors the unprecedented opportunity to view a broad range of photographic works from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, revealing the connections between not only major artists but also lesser-known artists to be discovered or rediscovered, including Hans Bellmer, Claude Batho, Gaël Bonnefon, Mohamed Bourouissa, Brassaï, Sophie Calle, Denis Darzacq, Jean Dieuzaide, Robert Doisneau, Ralph Gibson, Laura Henno, Ouka Leele, Robert Mapplethorpe, Zanele Muholi, Gina Pane, Agnès Varda, Gisèle Vienne and Sabine Weiss.

These intersecting perspectives also highlight the medium’s diverse techniques and its many aesthetic possibilities, from documentary photography to personal portraits, archives, installations and even photojournalism, all of which provide the conditions for a fresh appreciation of the role of the viewer.

The photographs, along with installations and a selection of artist’s books and rare publications from the extensive libraries of both institutions, form a path that introduces several themes, designed to bring out points of convergence between the two collections while also playing on the singularities of each.

From spontaneous snaps to staged images, from graphic or even abstract research to considerations of the body or space and from questions of identity to assertions of subjectivity and the exploration of narrative possibilities, this rich ensemble of almost 300 works represents a critical appraisal of the nature and potential of photography.

Curators
Christian Caujolle, artistic advisor at the Château d’Eau 
Lauriane Gricourt, director of Les Abattoirs

This exhibition is supported by the Neuflize OBC Foundation.

In media partnership with ARTE.