Debi Cornwall deciphers the image as a tool for political analysis
"How do we make sense of life in a violent country? How do performances and fictions and playing roles help us either make sense of our violent culture or justify…
"In the history of photography and painting, it has rather been men who have looked at women with this idea of desire more or less asserted [...]. Multiple/désirs is a piece that speaks about female desire, my own [...]. It's also the gaze of a 50-year-old woman, and I think it's good that it exists among the landscape of images." – Virginie Otth
Virginie Otth (Switzerland, 1971) is a photographer from Lausanne who examines the fragmentary, incomplete and ever-renewed relationship to the world offered by photography, but also by our gaze and perception.
In this video, Virginie Otth presents Multiple/désirs, a monumental work made up of 26 prints on aluminum, addressing the notions of female gaze and feminine desire. It can be seen at the A Lake in the Eye exhibition until February 25, 2024.
The work Multiple/désirs entered Photo Elysée's collection through a purchase in 2021 as part of the COVID-19 measures, a transitional cantonal aid scheme for cultural players, run by the State of Vaud's Service for Cultural Affairs (SERAC).
The exhibition Virginie Otth: A Lake in the Eye can be seen at Photo Elysée from November 3, 2023 to February 25, 2024.
"How do we make sense of life in a violent country? How do performances and fictions and playing roles help us either make sense of our violent culture or justify…
Photographer Roger Eberhard (1984, Switzerland) is the guest of Nathalie Herschdorfer, Director of Photo Elysée, and Stefano Stoll, Director of Images Vevey as part of a special series of CONVERSATIONS.