FRAME PERSPECTIVE

LINDA AMANG

// Linda is a photographer based in Caen, in the Normandy region of France. She loves documenting life around her, watching, listening, narrating a story. When she visited the light installation “Frame perspective” by Olivier Ratsi she loved capturing the reaction of the visitors to this spectacular dialogue between architecture and contemporary art .

“Happy are those who are cracked, because they let in the light. ”

attributed to the screenwriter Michel Audiard

What draws you to the arts?

“Cinema! The way it destabilizes its audience through framing, angle, sound and music. I enjoy the possibilities it offers, the escape… I want my opinions to be challenged, to feel uneasy, overwhelmed.”

What did you like most about this exhibition?

“It enables the audience to rediscover the Abbaye with a new eye/in a new light. So of course I had to capture people´s reaction to it .”

Frame Perspective is part of a body of work created by the French visual artist Olivier Ratsi from 2012 onward, part of his “Echolyse” series through which he explores the perception of space. Through its scale and rhythm, it creates a physical relationship with the visitors. Lit up frames that are aligned in a rhythmic sequence one behind another, multiplying their geometric forms, seem to draw the viewer in. The installation is accompanied by sound designed by Thomas Vaquié. It has been exhibited in various different cities and architectural locations.

What Linda has photographed is the installation at the cloister Abbaye-aux-Hommes in Caen, France. The abbey is one of two Benedictine monasteries founded around 1060 by William the Conqueror and his wife, Mathilde. The Abbaye-aux-Hommes became Caen´s Town Hall in 1963. In this arts documentary series we can admire the striking modern light installation with its red glow juxtaposed to the ancient abbey walls. Silhouetted against the exhibit, we can only guess at the viewers´ awe to this unusual light installation at this medieval monastery.

You can also get a look at some videos of this installation with sound at Olivier Ratsi´s website. The exhibition is unfortunately no longer on view at the Abbey.

Some images may be cropped for layout in the gallery view. Click on the photos to see the full image.