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KOPEIKIN GALLERY & DE SOTO GALLERY PRESENT
DENIS DARZACQ: Hyper
June 10 - August 21, 2010
Kopeikin Gallery teams up with De Soto Gallery to present Hyper, an exhibition of photographs by French photographer Denis Darzacq. The exhibition will include photographs from a new series, Hyper, as well as selections from the preceding series, La Chute. The exhibition will take place at Kopeikin Gallery from June 10 thru August 21, 2010.
Darzacq asks young street dancers from working class neighborhoods in Paris and Rouen to perform in the aisles of the "hypermarché," the massive supermarkets and global retail chains that have supplanted smaller shops in France and in many countries around the globe. Suspended in mid-air, these floating bodies bring an otherworldliness to common consumerism. Like baroque figures, the dancers rise and fall either victims or victors against the absolutism of globalized commerce. This opposition between being and having, between the person and the environment - a central theme in Darzacq’s practice - questions the human cost of materialism.
Also on view are selections from La Chute (“The Fall”), the initial series of which Hyper is an extension. La Chute was inspired by the 2005 riots in the housing projects (“banlieues”) around the outskirts of Paris where many young, disenfranchised, and mostly immigrant inhabitants were blamed for much of the unrest. Like Hyper, the photographs present dreamlike scenes of hovering bodies but in this case they are contrasted against the sparseness of the desolate landscape. La Chute is a meditation on uncertainty, possibility, and desire in the face over overwhelming adversity.
Denis Darzacq has exhibited widely in Europe and Australia, and recently in the US. His work is held by France's Centre Pompidou, the Fond National d'Art Contemporaine, and other major collections. He was the recipient of the Altadis Prize in 2000 and the World Press Photo Prize in 2007. There are six published monographs of his work including Hyper and La Chute. Darzacq lives and works in Paris.
Kopeikin Gallery is located 8810 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood, Ca 90069. Gallery hours are Tuesday thru Saturday, 11am to 5pm.
Read the Artforum.com review .
Read the Artslant.com review .