LAUSANNE.- Born in Ticino in 1950, the artist Luciano Rigolini’s interest for vernacular photography questions this particular mode of representation of the real. He carefully collects neutral images of objects or urban furniture, removed of any human presence or trace, such as the photographs made for sales or industrial documentation catalogues. Rigolini is not any ordinary collector. He takes hold of the images collected, then transforms them into images-objects, exploring new narrative forms.

With Concept Car, Luciano Rigolini deals with the theme of the car. Collected, found on Internet, presented as such or thoroughly retouched and greatly enlarged, Luciano Rigolini’s photographs reveal an aesthetic approach filled with sculptural, pictorial, and metaphorical qualities, while suggesting a reflection about our ability to see and perceive.

When carried into this new context, Rigolini’s images lose their documentary purpose in favor of a more conceptual aesthetic. He thus pretends that “isolating the object from its context by making it virtual, the image is no longer the proof of anything, it is no longer the representation of something and becomes a picture.”

Concept Car is an exhibition presenting four series, including Surrogates: 125 photographs, collected from the Internet, depicting spare parts of vintage cars. Surrogates is being simultaneously shown at the Centre culturel suisse in Paris and at the Musée de l’Elysée. The catalogue, copublished by the Musée de l’Elysée and the Centre culturel suisse, was made possible thanks to the support from the Friends of the Musée de l’Elysée.

“Scientists recurred to photography in order to fix reality, to reproduce objectivity; but what really thrills me is its poetic dimension.” --Luciano Rigolini

Curators
Sam Stourdzé and Anne Lacoste, Musée de l’Elysée