Lockdown, Clichy Avenue, Paris, France, March. 17. 2020? Antoine d'Agata | Magnum Photos. 

French photographer Antoine d’Agata's solo exhibition (part of Festival Croisements 2021) will open on June 5, 2021, at the Light Society. This exhibition offers to retrace Antoine's intimate quest from several series that represent different important creative stages in his career, included Virus (2020), Every day turns into night, Light is like a virus in the eyes, and Mala Noche (1991). While traveling in France, Laos, Cambodia, Mexico, and other countries, Antoine captured raw life scenes of the local people with his unique perspectives and visual language.

Intensive care unit COVID -19, Bagatelle Hospital, Bordeaux, France, April 2020  ? Antoine d'Agata | Magnum Photos. 

Moreover, this exhibition will also present the artist’s latest cinematographic works, as well as the personal photography book collection selected by himself specifically for this exhibition, which aims to show the richness of his artistic language more comprehensively, and allows the audiences to feel the charisma of Antoine d’Agata - the legendary "Bard of Magnum Photos."

Groningen, 2003.  ? Antoine d'Agata | Magnum Photos. 

This exhibition has received generous support from the Embassy of France and the artist himself, it will run until August 15, 2021.

About the artist

ANTOINE D’AGATA ? Gilles Pandel

Antoine d'Agata was born on 19 November 1961 in Marseille. At the age of 17, he interrupted his studies to live in the world of the night. For twelve years, he lived and travelled in some twenty countries. In 1991, while living in New York, and with no photographic experience, he enrolled at the International Center of Photography where he studied with Nan Goldin and Larry Clark. In 1993, he moved to France, worked as a bricklayer and stopped his photographic practice until 1997. In 1998 his first book, Mala Noche, was published. The following year, he joined the Vu gallery created by Christian Caujolle. In 2001, he received the Nie?pce prize. In September 2003, the exhibition 1001 Nuits was inaugurated in Paris, accompanied by the publication of two books, Vortex and Insomnia. In 2004, he joined the Magnum agency, published his fifth book, Stigma, and made his first short film, El Cielo del muerto. In 2006, the photographer shot his second film, Aka Ana, in Tokyo, and his latest four-hour feature, White Noise, brings together the voices of 24 women. Antoine d'Agata won the Photographic Book Prize at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles in 2013 for the book Anticorps, published the same year in a major exhibition at Le Bal, Paris.

Antoine d'Agata's work can be read as an exploration of contemporary violence from two distinct perspectives: The violence of the day or economic and political violence (migration, refugees, poverty and war) and the violence of the night or violence generated by social groups marginalized by poverty (survival through crime, narcotic addiction, sexual excess). His latest books (out of print) are VIRUS (2020), published by Studio Vortex, which documents the Covid-19 pandemic, and Antoine d'Agata - Francis Bacon (2020), published by The Eye, which brings together the works of both artists.

For the past thirty years, Antoine d'Agata has lived and photographed all over the world. To date, he has published some fifty works. Author, photographer and filmmaker, he is a member of the Magnum Photos agency and his work is represented by the Galerie des filles du Calvaire in Paris, Magnum Gallery in London, MEM Gallery in Tokyo, Kahmann Gallery in Amsterdam, Carles Tache Gallery in Barcelona. Internationally renowned, his work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, has been shown in various museums and has been included in public and private collections throughout the world.

About the exhibition

Duration: 2021.06.06 - 08.15

Venue: Light Society

Address: Building No.56, No. 12, Zhuyuan Rd., Shunyi District, Beijing

Courtesy of the artist and Light Society.