Roses

series of photograms that appears to be a way of re-thinking the portrait, by substituting a part for the whole and inscribing it in time: the hair that Françoise’s looses each morning, which she then rolls on to a finger, in a nearly mechanical gesture – this constitutes the subject. The series comprises 1010 images, 15 by 10 centimeters, and the type of B/W R-Coated photographic paper used produces heavy shades of pink, unsaturated, resembling the color of flesh. The artists also keep the sources of the images in little plastic bags, like an inventory of archaeological discoveries, or like the negatives kept by photographers...  Sylvie Henguely, Art historian, Swiss Foundation for Photography

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm…> This turn to iteration continues in their life in London, where the artists reside from April to September 1999, thanks to a stipend from the Landis & Gyr Foundation. During that visit they create another series based on an objet trouvé , following a slower rhythm this time: London Lightcaptures the light of London during an exceptional summer by means of impressions left by a large paint-brush on photographic paper. Exposed to the natural light, the brush lies for a month on the paper. The colors of the photogram obtained this way differ one from another according to variations in the intensity of the light as the summer advances. Flamboyant like torches in the London night, the brushes join the two artists in a single work that mixes the painting of Françoise and the photography of Daniel. As an attempt to materialize lived time (in London) and to give it a face, the six images of London Light perhaps contain, too, a wink at the famous work of Henri Fox Talbot, The Pencil of Nature(1844/46), comprising several photograms. For their part, F&D Cartier have surreptitiously substituted a brush for Talbot’s pencil. Here, it’s the light which creates the brush, while normally the brush applies the traces of light to the canvas.

Unique series of 6 monthly exposed photograms, Landis&Gyr artists- in -residence London, 1999 >Henri Bergson “It’s not time that passes, it’s we who pass.”

Death gushes unhindered from the small series named Danza , or Mexican Suite (2000), inspired by a figuring of a skeleton found in the Zócalo market in Mexico City. The photograms created on site (postcards size B/W R-C paper directly exposed in the streets) are striking both in the fragmented ribs of the figure and in the frankness of the forms. Using deliberately reduced formats (15 by 10 centimeters), the dance sketched by Death jerks and halts. The images often line themselves up, and the alternation of torsos and legs gives the saraband a devilish rhythm. Little by little, one starts to hear the clinking of the bones. Danzatries to bring together the divergent attitudes of two cultures toward death, the one Mexican, the other European. The first is expressed in the celebration of the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), the other in the medieval danse macabre. While Europe gradually separated life and death, focusing on the one and ignoring the other, in Mexico the two realms continue to interpenetrate in a more organic way. It is this continuity between life and death that fascinates F&D Cartier, and it’s the reason they try to create a synthesis, introducing a Mexican doll into the European dance of death, mixing the pink shades of life with the skeletons of death. As in a shadowy pantomime, the silhouette of the skeleton bends in certain places, stretches menacingly in others or assumes some comically theatrical pose of a danse macabre.

Series photograms Climax, 2000-2004, Exposed April 27th, 2002, sunny day, 12:35 - 20:45 , Unique B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 40,6 x 50,8 cm…>The feminine body is no longer directly a part of the series of brassieres named Climax . As much a symbol of refinement and luxury as a symbol of women’s oppression in the 1960s, this piece of lingerie is presented differently here, less neatly, than the panties in the previous series. As if oppression and shackles had suddenly fled, the brassieres seem to enjoy newfound liberty. Their dancing images confirm the note of frivolity present in the joyful title, alluding both to the peaks of the breasts and to the height of orgasmic desire. Nevertheless, if the title suggests a summit, the arrangement of brassieres on the paper and of the photographic papers in the exhibition space simulates its corollary, a falling movement, emphasized by way in which the images are hung in a vertical band, with the falling straps blurred by their motion. >B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 40,6 x 50,8 cm

F&D Cartier  Wait and See, personal exhibition >Detail of presentation, Climax and Gown with the wind series

From series Climax 2000-2004, Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 40,6 x 50,8 cm, Exposed on June 11th 2002, sunny day, 09:30 - 12:00

Exposed March 2, 2005, sunny, from 09:30 - 13:30 >from series Puzzle, 2001-2005 / 26 subjects from A - Z

The arrangement of the images on a rectangular surface and the varied outlines of the panties suggest a puzzle and its pieces. With its centered triangular forms, this series – Puzzle– looks a little like a well-ordered catalog, asking for comparisons and analyses. The panties spread out on the paper display the richness of their fabrics, like the ponderous wings of rare and delicate specimens in a collection of butterflies. But for its reference to a game of patience, the title of the work might more strongly suggest the verb to puzzle. In fact, while in the images a variety of forms and fabric can be divined, the photogram takes away their materiality, so that they exhibit themselves, undress and elude in a single movement. All the same, their presence exacerbates desire in emphasizing the absence of that which they are thought to hide. >Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 40,6 x 50,8 cm

from series Puzzle, 2001-2005, Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, Grid 12X 40,6 x 50,8cm

series Roses (2001–2004), distances itself from this type of structure and shows more casualness in the arrangement of objects. With its organic streak, from a distance this group appears to be the most spontaneous of the ensembles. Tulips, roses, peonies, magnolias, water arums, and many others, from the garden or elsewhere, serve to write an intimate journal of F&D Cartier’s lives and document their affection for plants. The flowers, lethargic or delicately dancing, suggest the elegance of bodies in movement. In a carefree tempo, this series extends other series intimately tied to the artists’ daily life, like Jour après jour , but it distinguishes itself by portraying living, perishable organisms that vanish with the realization of the photogram. Rosescertainly evokes the passing of time, but it seems to manifest no more than the tranquil, natural rhythm of its subjects. The beauty of this series derives perhaps from its mingling of life and death so closely. Among all of the series of photograms, this is the one that synthesizes best the four concepts, Rose, oser, sero, eros >Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm

from series Roses

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm

from series Roses

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm

from series Roses

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm

from series Roses

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm

from series Roses

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm

The photograms entitled Someday ... (2001–2005), suggest pieces of clothing for a Barbie doll, that icon of Western beauty. Much as marketing departments try to individualize the dolls by giving them fashionable surnames, the two artists match each photograph with the name of some actress or celebrity whom they associate with the image, as in Someday…, Marie-Line, 2002 . In keeping with their practice of altering things they borrow, they sometimes adjust the names according to their tastes. Childhood dreams are echoed in the dreams offered by Hollywood and its stars. Behind the lightness of this world of vaporous clothing, there is a critique of contemporary society that will become apparent. Questioning the dictates of fashion and its stereotypes, this series also alludes to the myth of Prince Charming. The title is borrowed from a song hummed by Snow White in Walt Disney’s film of the same name (“Someday my prince will come / Someday I’ll find my love / And how thrilling that moment will be / When the prince of my dreams comes to me”). >Series of 18 dresses, some custom made, some created by Françoise as a child.: Alice, Arlette, Barbara, Brigitte, Catherine, Clara, Iris, Jane, Juliet, Lilly, Maria, Marie-Line, Mitsuko, Olga, Pamela, Peggy, Sophie, Stella

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm >*The Selection vfg 01, Acquisition Fotostiftung Schweiz 2002

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm >*The Selection vfg 01, Acquisition Fotostiftung Schweiz 2002

 from series Someday, ...Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm >*The Selection vfg 01, Acquisition Fotostiftung Schweiz 2002

from series Someday, ...Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm >*The Selection vfg 01, Acquisition Collections Fotostiftung Schweiz 2002 / Publication: Fotostiftung Schweiz “99 Photographs” Lars Müller Publishers Zurich, Editor Peter Pfrunder, 09/2021 / Is part of permanent collections of the George Eastman Museum in Rochester

 from series Someday, ...Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm, >*The Selection vfg 01, Acquisition Fotostiftung Schweiz 2002

 ..in series Shells . Whether they are presented in the form of decorative patterns, like those left by a wave passing over the sand, or as in early works of Werner Bischof that they furtively honor, or arranged in rigorous repetitions, the shells evoke a celestial vault in a play of mirrors, with its constellations and stars half hidden, half emergent from their obscurity. Although... the largest shells, placed again at the center of the image, rather suggest the nebulous forms of an x-rayed skull or organ. And, imperceptibly, we find we have passed from superficial beach litter to unfathomable depths of a galaxy or of our own entrails. Unique daylight photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 50,8 x 40,6 cm

Unique photogram, B/W fibre-based gelatin print, 40,6 x 50,8 cm

Mixing puns with cinematographic asides, the series Gown with the wind (2005–2006) is the most recent. It adopts large formats in a single presentation. By its subject, it recalls the suspended dolls of Someday… , but this time the clothes belong to Françoise Cartier – passed down gowns, a vintage Mariano Fortuny creation, disguises, creations of her own hands, all worn one day or another but long since deposited in some trunk – which F&D Cartier have transferred to paper by impressing, like a sigh, a slight movement on the fabrics. Despite the liveliness of the folds and the careless festivity of the items, the images invite the viewer to mediate on the passing of all things: the loss of loved beings who leave behind only the pale resemblances of their presence, multiple identities that one has abandoned en route like old rags. Series of 50 unique daylight photograms, exposed from 2005-2006 >Unique daylight photogram of a vintage creation by Mariano Fortune (1871 - 1941 Venice), > each 125 x 63 x 1 cm, sealed in acrylic glass

Gown with the wind VIII, June 27, 2005 >Unique daylight photogram > 125 x 63 x 1 cm, sealed in acrylic glass

Gown with the wind VIII, June 27, 2005 >presentation: in its transportation wooden box, directly on the ground.

The question of identity that the two artists have repeatedly brought up individually acquires perhaps a much greater immediacy for the entity F&D Cartier. What share falls to each in the work for four hands and two heads? The artists take on this theme with derisive humor in the series Cartier’s (2005–2006). How to distinguish the “genuine” Cartier from the “false”? Does the duo belong to the illustrious clan or not? When does their fame and anonymity begin and end? Such questions are raised by this ensemble, which, less than being a critique of the irresistible magnetism of famous brands, is a play on identities – that of the artists and of the finery that they put on display. Collected by Françoise Cartier in the course of time and on many trips, necklaces with opulent or slender forms, classic or baroque silhouettes, affirm their distinctive characters without revealing their specific materiality. The pink background recalls, to be sure, the skin that the necklaces decorate. The infinite and unpredictable variations of shading in the photograms are a comment, as it were, on the diversity of the human genome: concerning individuals, each pink is unique. But this sustained, brilliant color, like the whiteness of the non-exposed areas, lends the objects an aura of glamor and sophistication appropriate to jewels of the eponymous brand. >Each is titled after a Cartier vintage jewel: Adorno, Alice, Amber, Azahar, Beeds, Black and White, Bleu, Braise, Cauris, Chain, Chimère, Chrysanthème, Circle, Gao, Gray, Gri Gri, Hana-Bi, Ice Cubes, Idaz, Incas, Infini, Isis, Jaisingh, Lapis Lazuli, Mayas, Méduse, Pagoda, Plata, Puff, Tangerine, Triangle, Tutti-Frutti, Venice. >33 Unique daylight photograms >from left to right: Chain, 21.07.2004 / Hana-Bi, 04.01.2004 / Tutti-Frutti, 04.01.2004 >>Unique daylight photograms, B/W fibre-based gelatin prints 30x24cm

Unique daylight photograms, B/W fibre-based gelatin prints 30x24cm >left - right: Infini, 19.07.04, / Chrysanthème,21.07.04 / Chimère 19.07.2004

Unique daylight photograms, B/W fibre-based gelatin prints 30x24cm >left - right: Azahar, 04.01.04 / Adorno, 10.01.04 / Venice, 06.01.04

special home made presentation frames, white distanced wood, acrylglas and screws.

ROSES    F&D Cartier     Galleria Consarc Chiasso, Suisse, 2007, presentation of the Cartier's series