About the author: Zoé Manset is an art historian, actor and writer from France based between Paris and London. She holds a BA in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art and an MFA in professional acting and production from Drama Studio London.
CollectivistX is neither affiliated with nor sponsored by Gallerie Bigaignon.
In the universe of galleries where space is often a currency hard-fought for, Bigaignon places itself as a haven for light, time, and space. The overhead natural light pours in from a skylight that runs through the middle of the gallery’s roof, traversing the space and gracing it with the very light the larger room of the gallery welcomes as its main character.
The "Gibson / Plossu" exhibition, 2024. Photo courtesy by Gallerie Bigaignon
Both within the Parisian and international scenes, the gallery has acted for the past ten years since its inception as a gateway towards a new vocabulary of art. It does not pretend to dedicate itself to a certain kind of artist or a specific medium but rather opens its phenomenal environment to larger themes, namely that of light, space, and time. This freedom and commitment to contemporary art explorations, no matter their origin, has been supported by their curated bookstore, where a choice of art books made by a wide range of art industry members evolves regularly.
Photo courtesy by Gallerie Bigaignon
The Gibson/Plossu exhibition, where the gallery presented a selection of 13 images from each artist’s work over the years, shows the gallery’s commitment to exploring the confines of space and light.
The perceived minimalistic curation of Bigaignon is thought through to every degree, with the constant presence of light as a central element—almost a work of art in its own right.
When going from one wall to the other, traversing Bigaignon’s idyllic space back and forth, one can start to weave a thread that creates a common story between these two artists’ works. Looking at the heavily contrasted, almost symmetrical images of Gibson, one can’t help but project that these are staged, whilst Plossu’s arid landscapes and the tale of travel they tell seem to say they have been taken on the fly. Gibson’s work is also a mastery of moment grabbing, with images taken from close angles in the nick of time. Their respective light plays answer each other, creating an extraordinary story that flirts with the land of dreams and the erotic. The subsequent result is an organic storytelling where Gibson’s images almost seem to represent the characters in the storyline set down by Plossu, like an infinitely romantic charade.
Another Bigaignon’s exhibition, installation by artist Olivier Ratsi’s “The Fall of Icarus,” poses at the other end of the gallery’s spectrum in terms of media and genre. The monumental light installation representing the mythical fall of a young man whose hubris precipitates his death occupies most of the gallery’s main space. The large overhead light that usually naturally pours in from the ceiling has been covered by the panel to which the coloured LED sticks that trace the moment of the fall are attached. The feeling is almost one of reverence when circling the work, and Ratsi’s objective of catalysing psychological and cultural references to disrupt spatio-temporal points is attained.
Olivier Ratsi's first solo exhibition entitled "The Fall of Icarus”, 2024. Photo courtesy by Gallerie Bigaignon
The exhibition comes at a time when our cultural spaces have used the respite of the Olympic Games, which Ratsi’s choice of colours actually hints at, to find a temporary platform of stability and unity. Although it represents the moment of Icarus’s fall into the sea, the work is a point of stasis in the air and an equally needed breath of fresh air from the current heavy and constantly shifting world cultural climate.
The installation works as a world of its own within that of the gallery, a shelter as well as a context to draw new relations to space and time from.
The space of the gallery itself appears almost reduced and offers a new platform, wholly different from the bright and spacious one offered to Gibson and Plossu. Anticipation surrounds the new shapeshifting instance expected when Bigaignon’s next exhibition, “Macadam noir,” by conceptual artist Bernar Venet, opens in mid-October. The pieces exhibited are part of his 1963 photographic series representing close-ups of road concrete, and it can be guessed that the gallery’s light will mostly be engaged in a collaboration with the dark and all-absorbing images.
By facilitating dialogues between artists, curators, writers, and the spaces afforded to their art, Bigaignon is one of the rare galleries tracing a new, light-filled path down the often dusty road of art gathering. Its next projects will continue to do so, and one would be advised to keep a watchful eye on their next adventure.