Apophenia is what stimulates us to find links between images or pieces of information which may be totally unrelated. During intuitive and sensorial journeys through the landscapes of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Léonard Pongo takes photographs of fragments of nature which for him resonate with traditional narratives or forms. He then transforms those images into new objects: here the transfer of gelatine used in photographic printing on to glass plates. Detached from the paper then stuck on the plates, this fragile film creates folds, tears, fragmentations. These are all novel elements, disturbing the initial image and proposing new forms, thereby encouraging us to activate other forms of perception. Just as the artist immersed himself in the landscape, so we lose ourselves in these images. Evoking the early years of photography, these glass plates reveal themselves in such a hampered manner that they make any definitive reading impossible. In this way photography recovers its right to opacity.
–– Text by Adrien Grimmeau
Release exhibition, September 11th, 6pm, Maison CFC, Brussels, Belgium.
Apophenia
Léonard Pongo
Non-couché/Uncoated series published by Maison CFC and ISELP
14,8 x 21 cm
Softcover
64 pages
Bilingual EN-FR
ISBN : 978-2-87572-121-1
