“I never thought I would write a book: it’s too huge! », smiles Bettina Clasen, yet holding the proof of “The Invincible Summer” in her hands. It was the former curator of the Vannes museums, Marie-Françoise Le Saux, who convinced her. And the grousillon editor, Catherine Riand, who brought it to fruition, by designing the model. This book, “the energy of three women”, is like a preamble to her exhibition at the Pierre Tal-Coat art library-gallery in Hennebont from May 10 to July 26.
Hymn to joy
Above all, don’t expect a postcard book from the Gulf! The German photographer and videographer, who arrived in Vannes in 2017, was seduced by the Breton lights, but her artistic approach is above all sensitive. “I work on joy. It’s a reflex, a vital instinct. I need to capture it,” she explains. Among the few quotes she shares throughout the pages, that of Albert Camus sums up her journey: “Amidst the tears, I found that there was an invincible smile within me. In the midst of chaos, I found that there was an invincible calm within me. I realized through all of this that, in the middle of winter, there was an invincible summer within me (…).”
I would never go to psychoanalysts. My therapy is photography
Bettina Clasen therefore watches for the light and her quest takes complementary paths which are presented in three chapters in the book. The first makes her an impressionist artist. “It’s a very old inspiration: when I was a model for the painter Michel Lecoque in the 1980s. He brought onto the canvas the joy of being in the great outdoors.” She rediscovered this capacity for wonder by playing with the surprise of the development of film, by experimenting with blur, which leaves room for the viewer’s imagination. “And on a daily basis, I accept it, I photograph on a cell phone,” explains the photographer. Because what counts is the look. His is always on the lookout for a bit of poetry: in an association of colors, the path of a ray of sunlight, the geometry of shadows… “Later, I combine these “light motifs” into diptychs” .
For even longer, the artist has been cutting, diverting, pasting photos, sheets, and sentences that she assembles in notebooks. They are so many logbooks of his projects, another, artisanal point of view on his approach. We can read there: “I would never go to psychoanalysts. My therapy is photography.” His joyful curiosity also warms the eyes and hearts of others.
Practical
“The invincible summer” published by îles majuscules (€30). Dedication Saturday, December 21 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Cécile Loiret gallery, 19 rue Noé in Vannes (where the book will remain on sale).
