22 April - 23 July 2023 · Power Station of Art, Shanghai

La vie moderne à Shanghai

Photographs installed on freestanding walls inside the Power Station of Art — Installation view, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2023. Works © Raymond Depardon. Photograph © 2023 Agent Pay.

The Power Station of Art and the Fondation Cartier brought together around a hundred photographs for Raymond Depardon’s first solo exhibition in China. The family farm at Le Garet, the farmers he returned to photograph over the years and the roads between their homes gave the exhibition its geography.

Adrien Gardère designed the installation as a landscape visitors could cross in different directions. Low walls carried the pictures across the open hall. The arrangement drew together La Ferme du Garet, La Terre des paysans, Rural and La France, letting visitors move between family history and the changing terrain beyond the farm.

Inside the Power Station of Art

Steps facing the photographic displays — La Vie moderne, Shanghai, 2023. Courtesy of Power Station of Art, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and Studio Adrien Gardère.

Prints from Familles on a yellow wall — La Vie moderne, Shanghai, 2023. Courtesy of Power Station of Art, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and Studio Adrien Gardère.

A blue wall opposite a row of colour prints — La Vie moderne, Shanghai, 2023. Courtesy of Power Station of Art, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and Studio Adrien Gardère.

Panoramic row of photographs from La France — La Vie moderne, Shanghai, 2023. Courtesy of Power Station of Art, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and Studio Adrien Gardère.

Moving images projected on freestanding walls — La Vie moderne, Shanghai, 2023. Courtesy of Power Station of Art, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and Studio Adrien Gardère.

Visitors seated on the steps inside the exhibition — La Vie moderne, Shanghai, 2023. Courtesy of Power Station of Art, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and Studio Adrien Gardère.

La Ferme du Garet

In 1984 Raymond Depardon photographed the rooms and outbuildings of his family farm. These five colour prints were among the works sent to Shanghai.

A woman seated by the stove — La Ferme du Garet, 1984. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

A shovel on the barn floor — La Ferme du Garet, 1984. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

Light falling across the hay — La Ferme du Garet, 1984. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

Stove and cupboard at the farm — La Ferme du Garet, 1984. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

Armchair and television in the farmhouse — La Ferme du Garet, 1984. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

La Terre des paysans

The Shanghai archive brings together work from several books. These photographs come from the files for La Terre des paysans.

Two farmers outside their house — Thérèse and Ambroise Ouillon on their farm. Grazac, Haute-Loire, 1990. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

The landscape around Le Villaret — Le Villaret, Lozère. From La Terre des paysans. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

La France

The exhibition also included photographs made on the road in France. Raymond Depardon set up his large-format camera opposite schoolhouses, shop windows and houses on the edge of town.

A town hall and school — La France, 2005. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

Butcher’s shopfront — La France, 2005. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

House with blue shutters — La France, 2005. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

Mobile butcher’s shop — La France, 2007. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

Open doorway onto the street — La France, 2006. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

A house and its garden gate — La France, 2007. © Raymond Depardon / Magnum Photos.

The exhibition at the Fondation Cartier · The installation by Studio Adrien Gardère