A photographer by trade, Simone Simon has been developing an artistic practice combining photography, video, sound recordings and written testimonials since 2000. Each of his projects is built in a pragmatic way, to render a raw, often poetic reality. Anchored in a social approach, she seeks in the subjects she captures a living testimony, where absence and time weigh sometimes as a threat, sometimes as a hope.
Thus, time seems to have stopped when she photographs industrial districts and disused infrastructures in several European cities, giving light the leading role (Souriez, on se détruit, Ainsi va la lumière). With Les portes du St Pierre (published by Le Passager Clandestin), she meets women in a suburb of Nice as their insalubrious building, already half-abandoned, is about to be destroyed.
Invoking the buried memories of childhood, the cradle of the first emotions, she gathers audio testimonies, bordering on the dreamy (Do not watch the fox go by). In Nostalgie du présent, a nod to the world of Paul Auster, she contrasts children's and adults' faces: "Everything is already inscribed in a child's face.*she observes, and the double portraits she proposes reveal the astonishing resemblance of a face that time cannot alter.
Simone Simon often relies on the participation of anonymous people (Sur le passage de quelques personnes à travers...), and whatever the issue, the images, stories and testimonies speak a common language. The artist highlights mental images, convictions, regrets or dreams, taking the time to listen, with the strong will of not staging anything, but simply seizing a subjective reality in which everyone can find a little of himself and his relationship to others. This was also her approach when she directed the film Boxing-club with Eric Antolinos, shot in a boxing club in the suburbs of Nice. There, she leaves the word free and lingers on the sporting gestures and on the attitudes which make the link between these inhabitants of all the generations and confused communities.
In her current work of photographs and testimonies, CORPS/VOIX territoire de l'intime, she brings together some thirty testimonies of women in their often troubled relationship with their bodies. Posing naked in an intimate setting, these anonymous women assert their desire for freedom: they rise up against cultural diktats and aesthetic codes, often alienating.
Without ever lapsing into pathos, nor claiming any kind of militancy, she nevertheless evokes how people's lives are affected by political decisions of all kinds. Benevolence and slowness make this poetry so particular, where time seems suspended.
Christine Parasote
* Paul Auster in L'invention de la solitude, ed. Actes Sud, 1993
Main exhibitions at the gallery :
Selection of works
2023 Histoire d'eau, Vernissage March 16, 2023, Galerie de l'école des beaux-arts de Versailles, 11 rue St Simon 78000 Versailles, France
2019 CORPS / VOIX Territoires de l'intime, Curratrice Chiara Palermo, Vernissage Friday September 27, 2019 from 6pm, With Presentation and signing of the book NU, Simone Simon, preface by David Le Breton, text by Chiara Palermo, Galerie Eva Vautier, Nice
2017 Ne regardez pas le renard passer, Sound installation, With Gilles Miquelis, Vivre à en crever, Galerie Eva Vautier, Nice, As part of the exhibition, Souvenir, réalité ou fiction?, debate led by Chiara Palermo (curator, doctor of philosophy) and Jean-Pierre Joly (psychiatrist, psychoanalyst), www.eva-vautier.com
2015 Paroles, 7-minute slide show, In collaboration with the women and children residents of the CHRS, Les Yuccas, yuccas.chrs@association-alc.org
2014 Ainsi va la lumière, Guest artist: Joseph Dadoune, www.eva-vautier.com
2011 Souriez, on se détruit, Guest artist: Nicolas Buissart, Villa Cameline, 43 avenue Montplaisir - 06100 Nice, www.villacameline.fr
2009 Les portes du St Pierre, Galerie d'art contemporain Christian Depardieu, www.galerie-depardieu.com
2007 Boxing club, Documentary made in a Nice suburb, directed by Simone Simon and Eric Antolinos, Awarded at Un festival, c'est trop court, Nice April 2008, Archived at the media library of the Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration, Paris, www.histoire-immigration.fr
2006 Nostalgie du présent, Exhibition of photographs from the book, FNAC, Monaco
2006 Nostalgia for the present, LA STATION Nice, www.lastation.org
2002 Sur le passage de quelques personnes à travers...,"LE DOJO" Nice, www.le-dojo.org
2022 L'ami-e modèle, Curator Mathieu Mercier, Mucem, Marseille, www.mucem.org
2021 Projet Nomade, Based on a project by Charlotte Pringuey-Cessac, Group show, Galerie Eva Vautier, Nice, www.eva-vautier.com, May 21 to June 19 Projet Nomade at Metaxu, espace d'artistes, Toulon, www.metaxu.fr
2020 1 mètre de distance, Group show, Galerie Eva Vautier, Nice, www.eva-vautier.com
2019 Cabinet pique-nique, femmes artistes, Voyage immobile video installation, Curator Jean Dupuy, Maison abandonnée (Villa Cameline), Nice, www.villacameline.fr
2016 Ne regardez pas le renard passer, Sound installation, Supervues, petite surface de l'art contemporain, Hôtel Burrhus, Vaison-la-Romaine, www.burrhus.com
2016 Tribu, Group exhibition, www.eva-vautier.com
2015 Il était une fois..., Sound piece, Hôtel Burrhus, Vaison-la-Romaine, www.burrhus.com
2015 One light year away, Group exhibition, www.eva-vautier.com
2014 Mises en scène, Château-musée Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-Mer, umamfrance.blogspot.fr
2013 Se dérober..., Group exhibition, Musée de la Photographie André Villers, Mougins, www.mougins.fr
2012/2013 L'art à l'abattoir, Video directed by Simone Simon and Eric Antolinos, Archived at the MAMAC media library, Nice
2011 J'aime les femmes et je le prouve, Group show, curated by Ben, www.ben-vautier.com
2009 Les portes du St Pierre, Rencontres de la photographie, Arles, Hôtel de Chartrouse
Biography
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Sans titre – Simone Simon
60.00 € -
Simone Simon, CAGNES SUR MER
3,600.00 € -
Simone Simon, ICELAND 2
3,600.00 € -
Simone Simon, NU – Book
35.00 € -
Simone Simon, VENCE
3,600.00 €
Works & editions
See all the works of Simone Simon available online
Information request
Artist information request form Simone Simon
Simone Simon
Photographer by profession, Simone Simon has been developing an artistic practice for fifteen years, mixing shots, videos, sound recordings and written testimonies. Each of his projects is built in a pragmatic way, to render a raw, often poetic reality. Anchored in a social approach, she seeks in the subjects she captures a living testimony, where absence and time weigh sometimes as a threat, sometimes as a hope.
Thus, time seems to have stopped when she photographs industrial districts and disused infrastructures in several European cities, giving light the leading role (Souriez, on se détruit, Ainsi va la lumière). With Les portes du St Pierre (published by Le Passager Clandestin), she meets women in a suburb of Nice as their insalubrious building, already half-abandoned, is about to be destroyed.
Invoking the buried memories of childhood, the cradle of the first emotions, she gathers audio testimonies, bordering on the dreamy (Do not watch the fox go by). With Nostalgia of the Present, a nod to the world of Paul Auster, she confronts the faces of children and adults: “Everything is already inscribed in a child’s face, “* she notes, and the double portraits she proposes bring out in a troubling way the astonishing resemblance of a face that time cannot alter.
Often, Simone Simon relies on the participation of anonymous people (On the passage of a few people through…) and whatever the problem posed, the images, stories and testimonies speak a common language to all. The artist highlights mental images, convictions, regrets or dreams, taking the time to listen, with the strong will of not staging anything, but simply seizing a subjective reality in which everyone can find a little of himself and his relationship to others. This was also her approach when she directed the film Boxing-club with Eric Antolinos, shot in a boxing club in the suburbs of Nice. There, she leaves the word free and lingers on the sporting gestures and on the attitudes which make the link between these inhabitants of all the generations and confused communities.
In her current work of photographs and testimonies, Le vent se lève, she brings together some thirty testimonies of women in the often troubled relationship they have with their bodies. Posing naked in an intimate setting, these anonymous women assert their desire for freedom: they rise up against cultural diktats and aesthetic codes, often alienating.
Without ever lapsing into pathos, nor claiming any kind of militancy, she nevertheless evokes how people’s lives are affected by political decisions of all kinds. Benevolence and slowness make this poetry so particular, where time seems suspended.
* Paul Auster in, The Invention of Solitude, ed. Actes Sud, 1993
Simone Simon
Lives in Nice
PERSONAL EXHIBITIONS
2019
BODY / VOICE Territories of the intimate
Curator Chiara Palermo
Opening Friday, September 27, 2019 from 6:00 pm
With presentation and signing of the book NU, Simone Simon, preface by David Le Breton, text by Chiara Palermo
Eva Vautier Gallery, Nice
2016
Don’t watch the fox go by
Sound installation
Supervues, small surface of contemporary art
35 rooms, 35 artists
Hotel Burrhus, Vaison-la-Romaine
2015
Words
7 minute slide show
In collaboration with the women and children residents of the CHRS, Les Yuccas
2014
Thus Goes the Light
Guest artist : Joseph Dadoune
Eva Vautier Gallery, Nice
2011
Smile, We’re Destroying Ourselves, Abandoned House
The Villa Caméline, Nice
2009
Les Portes Du Saint Pierre
Hôtel de Chartrouse, Rencontres de la Photoraphie, Arles
Les Portes Du Saint Pierre
Depardieu Gallery, Nice
2006
Nostalgia Of The Present, FNAC
Monaco Nostalgia of the Present
The Station, Nice
2002
On The Passage Of Some People Through
DOJO, Nice
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020
1 meter distance
Group exhibition with Benoît Barbagli and Aimée Fleury, Tom Barbagli, Arnaud Biais, Evan Bourgeau, Pauline Brun, Anna Byskov, Marc Chevalier, Joseph Dadoune, Nicolas Daubanes, Kristof Everart, Anne Favret and Patrick Manez, Forstner Gregory, Camille Franch-Guerra, Jacqueline Gainon, Marie Genin, Anne Gérard, Alexandra Guillot Alice Guittard, Laurie Jacquetty, Sandra Lecoq, Gilles Miquelis, Frédérique Nalbandian, Gérald Panighi, François Paris, Charlotte Pringuey-Cessac, Caroline Rivalan, Omar Rodriguez Sanmartin, Justin Sanchez, Simone Simon, Cedric Teisseire, Florent Testa, Ben Vautier, Agnès Vitani, Agathe Wiesner, Anne-Laure Wuillai and Junko Yamasaki.
Eva Vautier Gallery, Nice
2019
Picnic cabinet, women artists
Video installation Voyage immobile
With Olga Adorno, Brigitte Cardinal, Catherine Cattaneo, Caroline Challan-Belval, Elena Ferrer, Jacqueline Gainon, Alexandra Guillot, yayoi Gunji, Yoko Gunji, Corinna Kiefer, Jeanne Le Guff, Louise Luc Kheloui, Stéphanie Marin, Evelyne Noviant, Jackie Monnier Matisse, Lola Parrot, Marinella Senatore, Franka Séverin, Simone Simon, Anna Tomaszewski Abandoned House (Villa Cameline), Nice
2017
Don’t watch the fox go by
Sound installation
With Gilles Miquelis, Living to death
Galerie Eva Vautier, Nice In the context of the exhibition, Remembrance, reality or fiction, debate led by Chiara Palermo (curator, doctor of philosophy) and Jean-Pierre Joly (psychiatrist, psychoanalyst)
2016
Tribe
With Mathieu Alary, Pauline Brun, Joseph Dadoune, Sandra D. Lecoq, Kristof Everart, Gregory Forstner, Jacqueline Gainon, Anita Gauran, Alice Guittard, Philippe Jusforgues, Virginie Le Touze, Natacha Lesueur, Cécile Mainardi, Gilles Miquelis, Frédérique Nalbandian, Gérald Panighi, François Paris, Charlotte Pringuey-Cessac, Simone Simon, Ben Vautier, Agnès Vitani
2015
Once upon a time… An exhibition of Jean Dupuy and his friends : Catherine Cattaneo & Gilbert Caty, Jean Dupuy, Philippe Boulard & Jean-Baptiste Gurly, Jean-Luc Parant, Thierry Lagalla, Simone Simon…Hôtel Burrhus, Vaison-la-Romaine
A Year of Light, Eva Vautier Gallery, Nice
2014
Mise En Scène, UMAM, Château de Grimaldi, Cagnes sur Mer 2013
Se Dérober, André Villers Museum of Photography, Mougins
2012-2013
Art At The Slaughterhouse, le 109, Nice
2011
I love women and I prove it
Space to discuss, BEN, Nice
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
2014
La Manga Del Mar (MURCIA), B/W photograph (1/5 digital prints), series Ainsi Va La Lumière, private collection
Ambleteuse and Wimereux 2 photographs (EA), series Ainsi Va La Lumière, private collection
2013
Headless Nude, B/W photograph (1/5 digital prints), Musée de la Photographie, Mougins
2012-2013
L’Art À L’Abattoir, video co/directed with Eric Antolinos Archived at the MAMAC media library, Nice
Cabines de Bains BERG, photography (1/5 digital prints), private collection 2012 Untitled, photography (1/5 digital prints), edition Les Portes Du Saint Pierre
2011
One, photograph (1/7 digital prints), series Nieuwpoort, private collection
One, photography (2/7 digital prints), Nieuwpoort series, private collection Blue 2, photography (1/7 digital prints), Nieuwpoort series, private collection Charleroi Tuyaux, photography (1/7 digital prints), private collection
2010
Charleroi Box, digigraphy (1/5 digital prints), private collection
Charleroi Metro 1, digigraphy (1/5 digital prints), private collection
Wimereux, photography (1 and 2/5 digital prints), Voyage En Diagonale series 2002003, private collection
2009
Les portes Du Saint Pierre, Paroles De Femmes Dans Leur Cité, book of photographs published by Le Passager Clandestin
Archived at the National Museum of Immigration History, Paris
2008
Boxing Club, Video-documentary archived at the National Museum of Immigration History, Paris
PUBLICATIONS
2009
Les Portes Du Saint Pierre, Éditions Le Passage Clandestin, Paris 2006 Nostalgie Du Présent, Éditions e-dite, Paris
FILMOGRAPHY
2014
Voie Ferrée, Alicante, Exhibition Ainsi Va La Lumière, Gallery Eva vautier, Nice Blockhaus, Wissant, Exhibition Ainsi Va La Lumière, Gallery Eva vautier, Nice
2014
Castle in Spain, Alicante, Exhibition Mise En Scène, Grimaldi Castle, Cagnes sur Mer
2008
Boxing Club, Cannes Festival, Short Film Corner,
2007
Boxing Club, Un Festival C’est Trop Court, Cinéma Rialto, Nice
2014
Ainsi Va La Lumière, Eva Vautier Gallery, FR3 broadcast, Nice
2009
Les Portes Du Saint Pierre, Escale Festival Program, International Meetings of the
Photography in Arles, Radio France Inter (July 2009)
Les Portes Du Saint Pierre, Article in Le Monde 2 (September 2009)
La Parole aux Sans-Voix, article in the newspaper El Watan (December 2009)
2002
Sur Le Passage De Quelques Personnes À Travers, Personal exhibition, DOJO, Nice
FR3 program
Article Nice Matin (January 2002)
AID, AWARDS
2009
Les Portes Du Saint Pierre,
Financial assistance from the General Council
Exhibition assistance, City of Nice
2008
Boxing Club, Video-Documentary
CURSUS
1975-1978
Photo Assistant, Paul Genest, Plateau Sud, Rungis 1978-2002 Photographer
2002-2015
Photographer and videographer
-
Sans titre – Simone Simon
60.00 € -
Simone Simon, CAGNES SUR MER
3,600.00 € -
Simone Simon, ICELAND 2
3,600.00 € -
Simone Simon, NU – Book
35.00 € -
Simone Simon, VENCE
3,600.00 €