Under the term “In memoriam”, Polka Galerie features three exhibitions that could clearly correspond to three possible meanings or interpretations of this generic phrase that imposes respect, or even a eulogy, sadly often quite gloomy.

This is the case for the inauguration of New York-New-York, a testimony and collective homage to remember the tenth anniversary of the September 11th 2001 catastrophe. A tragedy that the exhibition rewinds to September 9th 2001 with the assassination of the Commander Massoud, allowing us to see the portrait that his friend Reza made of him back in 1985.

The four prints of Robert Clark, taken from the roof of his house in Brooklyn, remind us of the crash of flight 175 on the South Tower of the World Trade Center, but most of all the attacks on the American nation. At the foot of the towers, Klaus Reisinger and Allan Tannenbaum show the chaos and the courage of the firefighters. And Jean Michel Turpin makes an assessment ten years later.

And he is not the only one. In 2011, Ethan Levitas captured the passersbys at “Ground Zero” - we find them at Polka as part of an installation.

For Polka, In Memoriam is also the testimonies of Ara Güler on Turkey, and more precisely Istanbul. The copies from the fifties taken in Detroit, show the traffic, the transport of goods, the fishermen, the city in its turmoil. They are now its patrimony.

A ”memoriam” also for this “Monumenta” by Ahmet Ertug. This architect by training has photographed monuments that hold a story. Polka presents two series: Haga Sophia, the old basilica Sainte-Sophie in Istanbul, the masterpiece of Byzantine architecture. And the other one, Palaces of Music, his last production, devoted to world operas, where we find the Palais Garnier with its ceiling repainted by Marc Chagall.

Polkagalerie also presents the exhibition Street Mode Photography under the sponsorship of Françoise Hugier, featuring the three winners of the Polka Award SFR Jeunes Talents 2011: David Godichaud, Frédéric Grimaud and Toufik Oulmi.

Bernard Perrine
Bernard.Perrine1@orange.fr

In Memoriam
Street Mode photography
10 September through 5 November 2011
Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 7:30pm

Polkagalerie
12 rue Saint Gilles
75003 Paris
+33 (0)1 71 20 54 97
contact@polkagalerie.com