It is during this project that the magic formulas “OKUS LUMINIS” and “OKUS ABSTRACTUS ORGANICUS” were born.

The pictures are recomposed as a choreographer would do with a sequence of movements. The formula “OKUS ABSTRACTUS ORGANICUS” is born and the result will be called “OKUS ORGANICUS LUMINIS = OKUS LUMINIS + OKUS ASBTRACTUS ORGANICUS”. A way to decompose and recompose the movement.

It is important to note that apart from the assembly and the composition on the basis of several photographs, none of the photographs underwent post-production processes except for colorimetric and contrast retouching.

These geometric-organic processes are a way to make abstract what is perceptible, to erase the narrative aspect of a body or a movement. To give another perception, increased and amplified.

But the composition of the exhibition itself follows this rule, where all the compositions are used to create a photo-choreographic path, a modular visual lego ….

The result is an abstract form, PHOTO-CHOROGRAPHIC, an assembly of 164 photo prints on more than 5,000 photographs, printed on various supports (canvas, photos, transparencies), where the notions of micro, macro, organic and analog are intertwined. A sort of GIANT LEGO, ONIRIQUE and modular.

“D-Compo” is above all a research around movement. Born from the choreographic project of the same name, Manu Di Martino with the help of Fabrice Offredi, both scientists by training, develops a project that mixes hip-hop dance and photography, all tinged with science. This interdisciplinary project tends to place movement at the center of the different parts of the process: the photographic subject, the camera, the focal length itself and finally the organization of the resulting shots into a new composition. In this, the movement is first decomposed, transmitted to the different elements, to be recomposed in the final work. Artifacts, optical accidents, direct or indirect light painting by reflecting surfaces which are themselves imperfect, everything is done to mislead the spectator as well as the creators and thus to arouse in them a new questioning on the status of the objects, of the photographic process, of the dance, of the painting or of the more general movement. The images produced also take up, in their own way, the question of photography as the capture of reality. The movement, the energy contained in the photograph and its process, would influence the temporal dimension and thus the very status of these images. A logic undoubtedly inherited from the scientific training of these artists.

Can we still speak of photography after such manipulations? Photography has always been reworked and recomposed using different techniques. It has wondered about movement and how to capture and decompose it, as Marey did in his time, notably with his kinematic analyses of walking. To this reflection of photographer is mixed that of the dancer, on the trace which carries out its body, made apparent this time, but also on the occupation of space during its movements.

Through this set of questions and reflections, “D-Compo” was built.

David OTTEN