Cécile Monnier

des nuits sans silence
Fribourg Photographic Survey

17 December 2022 – 19 February 2023

Exhibition view, Cécile Monnier, des nuits sans silence, Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg, 2022. Photo : Guillaume Python

For the 2022 Fribourg Photographie Survey, Cécile Monnier chose to wander the banks of the rivers of Fribourg Canton, drawing on the figure of the fisherman as a sort of guid or go-between. She garnered contrasted black and white images, full of detail, with understated narratives.

des nuits sans silence (nights without silence) takes the form of a visual tale nested in the sensitive issues of land use management, farming, the environment and ecology.

The Photographie Survey is organised every two years by the Canton of Fribourg’s cultural Department. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication produced in collaboration with Fribourg cantonal and university Library.

FRIBOURG PHOTOGRAPHIC SURVEY

The State of Fribourg recognises the importance of photography as a tool for artistic creation and collective memory. Since 1996, it has awarded a grant every two years to carry out a cantonal photographic survey, which has a dual purpose: both individual works and documents for the history of Fribourg, these images are presented to the public in the form of a book and an exhibition, as well as being included in the collections of the Cantonal and University Library. However, although the Enquête fribourgeoise is unique in that it was set up as an archival project from the outset, its mission remains firmly anchored in the present. Indeed, it entrusts a photographer with the task of carrying out an original study, through images, on a theme related to Fribourg society and its territory, the landscapes it inhabits and the activities that take place there. Thus, collective life and its expressions, its symbols and contradictions, its realities without varnish or stereotypes are at the heart of the Enquêtes fribourgeoises.

For the thirteenth edition, the photographer Cécile Monnier has created a series of images along the canton’s waterways, guided by the figure of the fisherman. Her investigation is presented as a poetic visual tale that subtly questions land use, agriculture, the environment and ecology.

Opening on December 16, 2022 at 6pm at the Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg.