Swan's Shadow (2004-2010)

Simulaker gallery
opening: monday, 22nd of July, @ 19.00

www.gregoireeloy.com
www.simulaker.si

Girls with dark circles under their eyes appear like a mirage behind rich embroideries, eastern mermaids unblinking under the spotlights. As soon as they cross the curtain, they fall from their high heels, turn back to slender city creatures, light a cigarette. A bustle, dozen of photographers that are being ignored but never forgotten, constantly busy seamstresses, breathless assistants, stars posing, models sulking, bouncers on the watch... This is the well-organized scramble backstage at a John Galliano's fashion show. Grégoire Eloy, photojournalist back from Eastern Europe, finds himself immersed in this atmosphere. It is 2004, John Galliano is at the height of his art and fame. His talent, that seems unlimited, his references to the art world and the History, his borrowings from the Baroque, place him among the most creative and well-respected fashion designers in the world. And yet, the camera captures his isolation from the crowd: this is what appears to the photographer turning up in this very special universe of haute couture, searching for what's not easily revealed.

* * *

"I continued this work for several years. Each fashion show, you get the same feeling of embarrassment mixed with excitement, adrenalin, wonder at the new creations. References to Central Asian nomadic peoples, to the steppe, to Eastern European culture, resonate with me and echoes back my own work as a reporter. There is very little about fashion and glamour in my proof sheets, but rather ghosts, an angel, a Madonna, white ladies, John Galliano's loneliness on the runway, the decency of Steven Robinson, his right-hand man since the beginning... In search of my own obsessions, I find the dark side that designers won't show, the tortured face of artists struggling with the luxury business and the glitter worshippers."
2007: Steven Robinson disappears at 38 years old. 2008: Yves Saint-Laurent dies. 2010: Alexander McQueen commits suicide, then it is the brutal and chaotic end of John Galliano's era at Dior. These events echo the pictures collected since 2004, fragile, poignant, evanescent pictures.

about author:
Grégoire Eloy was born in 1971 in Cannes. After having studied economy and finance and held a corporate job, he devotes himself to photography since 2003. He works as an assistant for Stanley Greene between 2003 and 2005. 
His first photographic project, resulting from a journey on Europe's new borders during fall 2003, wins the Photographie.com 'Talent Reportage' Grant in 2004.
Since 2003, he carries on working on the Former Soviet Union and Central Asia, on topics linked with space, memory and the Soviet legacy. More recently, he worked in Georgia and around the Aral Sea.
 His series on displaced people in South Caucasus, Forgotten by the Pipeline (Les Oubliés du pipeline), was the subject of a book published by Images Plurielles in 2008, with the support of Amnesty International. 
Since 2010, he also collaborates with F93, a scientific and technical culture centre, on science-related projects, notably for his series Ether, shot in astrophysics laboratories.

Solo exhibitions:
2013
Ressac; at Galerie La petite poule noire, Paris
2012
Les Oubliés du Pipeline; at Musée d'Allauch, special guest for the Allauch photographic fair
2011
Swan's Shadow; at Galerie La petite poule noire, Paris
2010
Ether; Facade of the l'Institut d'Astrophysique, Paris, France
Les Oubliés du Pipeline; Archives et Bibliothèque Départementale, Marseille, France
2009
Wizowa; at Palace Rihour, Transphotographiques, Lille, France
Les Oubliés du Pipeline; Centre du Patrimoine Arménien, Valencia, Spain
2008
Gdansk; Galerie Wanted, Paris, France
2007
Les Oubliés du Pipeline; Galerie Fait et Cause, Paris, France
Les Oubliés du Pipeline; projection at Visa Pour l'Image, Perpignan, France
Wizowa; Festival Transfotografia, Gdansk, Poland
Les Oubliés du Pipeline; projection at Promenades Photographiques de Vendôme, France
2006
Wizowa; Espace Confluences, Paris, France
2005
Nouveaux Contours de l'Europe; Fotofestiwal, Lodz, Poland

Group exhibitions:
2011
Galerie Baudoin Lebon
Polka Galerie

Books:
2012 A Black Matter, Journal/F93, Paris
2008 Les Oubliés du Pipeline, préface de Sylvain Tesson, Editions Images Plurielles

opening times:
23rd - 27th of July: 12.00 - 20.00
30th of July - 17th of August: 16.00 - 20.00 (sundays & mondays closed)