Constantin Brancusi

What is less known is that Brancusi’s studio functioned like a photography studio or a film set. Early on, the sculptor understood that the images from photography and cinematography offered an essential perspective on sculpture: the possibility to view it from different angles, to record the impact of light or the projection of shadows, and to literally stage it. Brancusi thus cultivated a very fruitful relationship between his work as a sculptor and his work as a photographer, also using film thanks to the introduction by his friend Man Ray.

The artist Alain Fleischer presents these masterful works, sometimes illuminated by the projected images of films shot by Brancusi himself, inhabiting the studio space and reflecting the artist’s vision. As if the sculptures were visited by the ephemeral beings that inspired them. In this constellation, objects appear more or less raw, like The Kiss, or already very polished by their gravitational pull, like The Sleeping Muse or The Birds, oval and full forms that evoke objects polished by their journey through the cosmos like meteorites.

Thus, Alain Fleischer invites us to an unprecedented and intimate visit, where his camera not only envelops the volumes of the sculpture, restoring their thickness but also allows us to perceive their relationships in the space where they orbit like a system of planets. Endless Column, Bird in Space, Princess X… Suddenly, works in stone and bronze seem to evolve in weightlessness, and through the movements of the gaze or the light that illuminates them, they appear to animate and become mobile themselves.

A surprising dive into one of the most masterful and innovative works of the 20th century.