This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (April 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous.Find sources: "Smith" artist – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Smith
Born1985 (age 38–39)
Paris, France
Other namesBogdan Smith[1]
EducationParis-Sorbonne University, Aalto University
Alma materNational School of Photography, Arles
Websitesmith.pictures

Smith (stylized as SMITH; born 1985)[1] is a French transdisciplinary artist-researcher. Smith experiments with and explores the links between contemporary humanity and its boundary figures - ghosts, mutants, hybrids - engaging his own body and that of his collaborators - writers, astronauts, shamans, engineers, designers, performers or composers - in indisciplinary projects. Disturbing genres, languages and disciplines, Smith proposes curious works, in the etymological sense of cura: curiosity and care for the world around us, the terrestrial and the celestial, the human and the non-human, the visible and the invisible, imagination and fiction. Thermal cameras, drones, neon lights, implantations of electronic chips and subcutaneous meteorites, atomic mutations or trance practices characterise his fluid work composed with technological and spiritual means that incorporate the dimensions of mystery and dream.[2][3]

Early life and education

[edit]

Born in 1985 in Paris, France.[3][4] Smith has a degree in 2010 from the National School of Photography, Arles [fr].[5][2] Smith has also studied at the Paris-Sorbonne University (2007), and the Aalto University (2009) in Helsinki.[4] He graduated from Le Fresnoy (National Studio of Contemporary Arts) in Tourcoing, France in 2012, and a PhD from UQAM in Montreal, Quebec in 2022.[5][4]

Work

[edit]

Smith's initial artistic medium was photography; later installations include a variety of media. His work, both plastic and theoretical, is now described as "indisciplinary".[5] Smith has engaged in collaborations with scientific and philosophical research teams and labs - such as the French National Centre for Scientific Research in 2012,[6] and the IRAP (Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie) in 2018.[7]

In the interactive installation "Cellulairement" (2012), a thermal capture device in the installation space was connected to an electronic chip implanted in Smith's body, allowing Smith to feel the presence of viewers.[5][8]

Many of Smith's early works explore questions of gender and personal identity. The idea of transition is a central element of his artistic practice.[5] French photographer and photography specialist Arnaud Claass wrote about Smith's work, in the preface of Smith's first monographic book: "There is no mystery; Smith's approach to the visible, at once luminarist and dark, is valid as an image of the uncertainty of sexual roles. Questions of gender, a current in philosophy over the last twenty years or more, occupy an important place in the intellectual development of [Smith's] oeuvre.".[9] Along with French curator Nadège Piton, Smith wrote the book "Transgalactic" in 2020 about queer & trans presences in contemporary photography, and curated the eponymous exhibition presented in March 2023 at La Filature, Mulhouse.

His most recent projects are "Spectrographies" (2014), "TRAUM" (2015–18), "Saturnium" (2017) and "Desideration" (2019-2021). They were presented during cinema festivals in Europe, at the Centre Pompidou, and Théâtre de la Cité Internationale (Paris), at the CND (Pantin), at the Dance Museum (Rennes) and at the CCN-ICI (Montpellier).

Smith's visual works were exhibited as solo shows at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie (Arles), at the Filles du Calvaire gallery and Palais de Tokyo (Paris), at the Photographic Museum of Helsinki (Finland), as well as several countries in Europe (Sweden, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland), Asia (China, Cambodia, South Korea) and Latin America (Mexico, Chile, Uruguay).

Smith is represented by Christophe Gaillard gallery in Paris. He is currently an associate artist at La Filature - Scène Nationale in Mulhouse, and laureate of the 2023 Villa Albertine in partnership with the french writer Marie NDiaye.

Publications

[edit]

His first book, "Löyly" (Filigranes) was published in 2013, followed by "Saturnium" (Actes Sud) in 2017, a long-length interview by art historian Christine Ollier in 2017, "Juste entre nous" (André Frère), the opera booklet "Astroblème" (Filigranes), and the traval-photobook "Valparaiso" (André Frère).

Solo exhibitions

[edit]

Selected works

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Smith". Radio France (in French).
  2. ^ a b "Hear us marching up slowly : Dorothée Smith — Les filles du calvaire Gallery — Exhibition". Villa Albertine. 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
  3. ^ a b "Smith". Suomen valokuvataiteen museo. 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  4. ^ a b c Rouault, Samantha (2012-01-20). "Portfolio "Spree" by Dorothée Smith (5/6)". Jeu de Paume, le magazine. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  5. ^ a b c d e Marull, Mélodie (30 March 2013). "Dorothée Smith | C19H28O2". Boumbang (in French). Retrieved 14 May 2021.
  6. ^ "Le Fresnoy - Panorama 14". Archived from the original on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
  7. ^ De Bei, Andreina (14 June 2018). "Origine manquante : photographie et sciences dialoguent à Toulouse |". Sciencesetavenir (in French). Retrieved 6 December 2018.
  8. ^ Bogdan Chthulu Smith (August 2, 2012). "Cellulairement". YouTube. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  9. ^ "Dorothée Smith: Löyly& Sub Limis". Archived from the original on 2013-04-14.
  10. ^ "patafilm # 643 " dorothee & anais"".
  11. ^ "Invitation au vernissage" (PDF).
  12. ^ "Dorothée Smith – Solo Exhibition at Dask Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark". 28 July 2009.
  13. ^ "Sir Alice et Dorothée Smith, aux limites du genre". 2009-09-22.
  14. ^ "Photo Phnom Penh 2011". Photography Now. 26 November 2011. Retrieved 2018-05-22. Dorothee Smith
  15. ^ "Encontros da imagem". Archived from the original on 2018-05-22. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  16. ^ ""La Vie en rose" pour la 26e édition des Photofolies".
  17. ^ "The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finlande" (in Finnish). Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  18. ^ "Löyly & Sub Limis". Le Chateau d'Eau (in French). January 26, 2011. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  19. ^ "Dorothée Smith - Rencontres d'Arles".
  20. ^ Pedroletti, Brice (2011-05-24). "Caochangdi Photospring - review". The Guardian.
  21. ^ "Dorothée Smith : entre (deux) fantômes".
  22. ^ "Давайте Мечтать".
  23. ^ "Traum by Dorothée Smith". 26 January 2017.
  24. ^ "Smith Par/Ici".
  25. ^ "San José Foto".
  26. ^ a b "Désidération (Anamanda Sîn)".
  27. ^ Bogdan Chthulu (November 2, 2011). "Smith: "C19H28O2 (Agnès). 2010 (trailer)". YouTube. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  28. ^ "Cellulairement". Archived from the original on December 6, 2012.
[edit]
International
National
Artists
Categories