Inspiring, innovative, iconic, influential, Caroline Bénech embellishes the world in ALTERNATE CITIES. For her first show in Hong Kong, at Wittgenstein Editions Gallery, Bénech has included new works featuring Hong Kong itself, inviting us to engage in the bitter poetry of large cities.
Wittgenstein Editions Gallery is delighted to present ALTERNATE CITIES, an exceptional series of cities photographed, metamorphosed and sublimated, to produce a world that is not just transformed but reimagined.
The exhibition explores cities all around the world - New York, Paris, London, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Miami, Dubai - expressing the lives, excesses, trauma, humour and happiness encapsulated within the urban environment.
Life emerges out of the city and reveals a fairy universe, as if the construction process has freed an energy that would otherwise remain imperceptible. A sense of euphoria colours the works, creating an atmosphere that the artist reveals through different techniques. As a result each piece is unique.
“The creations of Caroline Bénech, resounding with earth art, conceptual art and surrealism, offer a new and very interesting approach to the interpretation of the urban landscape. The images create emotions that cannot let one be indifferent. The result is really stunning, “says Julie Wittgenstein, creator of Wittgenstein Editions.
Each city has its own personality that the artist captures and reveals. Images of Shanghai clearly express a vision of the city-to-be; shapes are rapid and slender, and everything turns, explodes and emerges. Photographs of Paris are more romantic, while Miami’s beaches appear to have been touched by the stars.
Formed from the real – the initial photographs of the cities – a delirious imagination then takes over to create the surreal. ALTERNATE CITIES brings forth new perceptions and interpretations.
Caroline Bénech lives and works in Paris, France. Following her youthful creative impulses, she joined the Ateliers du Carrousel course at the Parisian Decorative Arts institution, earning an ESAG/Penninghen Masters degree in Graphic Arts summa cum laude.
After several years working on applied creations and art direction for beautiful Parisian brands (including graphic identity, packaging and special-events designs), Caroline Bénech now devotes herself to a contemporary artist career.
Caroline Bénech’s creative ideas are particularly lively and animated, and in Alternate Cities she has not only transformed images of our world, she has reimagined it. www.Bénech.fr “Pink Panther and globetrotter, she shoots digital images in Paris, New York, Shanghai, Santiago or Miami without a tripod. Then she over-exposed on a glass plate the ultimate perceptible layer, with various
additions: plastics, spangles, varnish, acrylics, dust and particles. The result is a striking painting, really feminine and lively. Between Floyd and Glitter, Caroline Bénech offers a new face of the cities.” CB News A.M.
