Hervé Beurel

The inventory and collection of urban motifs are the essential principles of my photographic praxis. The series Collection publique, bringing together almost 50 photographs, explores the legacy of the decorative works resulting from the architectural programmes and art commissions in the public place, produced during the 1960s and 1970s. The photograph, which is almost confused with its model, except for the difference in scale, adopts the rigorous flatness and frames the motif as closely as possible. Like abstract compositions sharing all the features of the modernist picture, they more probably reveal a scaled-down version of pictorial abstraction, very often presenting just formal stereotypes. As metonymies of modern utopias, these large-format works create a synthesis between painting, architecture and photography.