Bertrand MEUNIER. Erased
After a first presentation in the museum Nicéphore Niépce, ‘Erased’ proposes in 80 silver prints, videos, installations and press clippings, a new take on the vast body of work produced by Meunier in China from 1999 to 2019.
Bertrand Meunier is a founding member of the Tendance Floue collective and winner of the Niépce Prize in 2007. He is the perfect representative of this type of French documentary photography. His style is cinematic, rooted in analogue practices, and for him, the medium is first and foremost a tool for understanding the world rather than a mere recording technique.
Meunier has refined his approach since his early work for VU’ agency and commissions for Newsweek and Libération. His high standards and rigorous slant provide the viewer with a world vision devoid of frills, one that requires them to think and question. Bertrand Meunier donated his archive to the museum Nicéphore Niépce in 2021 and invited the institution to revisit his collection. After a first presentation in the museum Nicéphore Niépce, ‘Erased’ proposes in 80 silver prints, videos, installations and press clippings, a new take on the vast body of work produced by Meunier in China from 1999 to 2019.
During his regular trips to China, Bertrand Meunier was able to capture the transformations the country has undergone in the past twenty years, from joining the World Trade Organisation [2001] to the protests in Hong-Kong in 2019-2020, before the COVID epidemic closed the country off to foreigners.
Curators of the exhibition : Sylvain Besson- Bertrand Meunier.
A coproduction between the museum Nicéphore Niépce and the Musée de la Photographie, Charleroi.
With the support of Picto Foundation.
Bertrand Meunier Chongqing Autonomous Municipality, April 2000 © Bertrand Meunier, Tendance Floue