Bernard Voïta – Melencolia

A group of blind men gather around an elephant to gain an impression of it. One grasps a leg and says: “An elephant looks like a supple tree-trunk.” Another catches hold of a tusk and protests: “On the contrary, an elephant is hard and pointy. It has an elongated, curved shape.” Touching its side, a third one cries: “Totally incorrect! An elephant resembles a flat wall with bumps.” The fourth, in turn, triumphantly holds the tail in his hands and laughs at everyone: “An elephant is just a thin rope.” They get into an argument and bash each other on the head because each is convinced that he is telling the truth.

Bernard Voïta refers to this ancient and highly topical parable ‘The Blind Men and the Elephant’ to illustrate his interest in photography. Born in the year 1960 in Cully, this artist already caused an international sensation around 1990, with pictures showing banal everyday objects in such a meticulously organised disorder that observers searched in vain for something to hold onto for orientation. The works were not based on montages or collages, but on three-dimensional installations, which he had translated into irritating two-dimensional images by means of a camera. Voïta has persistently continued to play a fantastical game with appearance and reality ever since. This exhibition now presents for the first time the complete series Melencolia (2014­–2017), whose title alludes to a famous work by Albrecht Dürer – sensorial, clever, devious and sometimes disturbing illusions, in which photography creates its own reality. Nothing is as we see it.