Freedom of panorama is an exception to copyright, first introduced into German law at the end of the XIXth century. It considers that all artworks (including buildings and sculptures) located in the public domain can be photographed or filmed without the authorization of the author. France, Belgium Italy and Greece are the only countries in Europe without freedom of panorama in their legislation. In principle any reproduction of the Atomium, the Pyramide du Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower lights at night are illegal without prior authorization.
It is within this framework that the Mobile Camera Club in Paris has decided to gather photographers from various countries whose main photographic subject is the city and its architecture, to see how they choose to inhabit the public space. Do they take legislation restrictions into account or do they freely express their emotions? And how do they create something of their own, based on somebody else’s creation?
Do they feel they have to find innovative angles and framing, like their New Vision predecessors? Do they fragment and deconstruct, play with forms, colors and dimensions until they make reality unrecognizable? Or like the Surrealists, do they mock reality and appearances? Or else, in between collage and typography, do they choose to follow the track of a refined design, taking roots in the Bauhaus movement?
For artists, the city remains the place of all possibilities and an opportunity to present us the many unknown facets of an intimate and dreamlike city.
The following mobile artists are represented within this exhibition from January 30, 2016 to March 9, 2016; Leny Bagshop, Nadine Benichou, Lynette Jackson, Kristine Norlander, Joshua Sarinana and Tony Nahra.
