Born in 1977 in France, lives and works in Montpellier, France.
French visual artist and photographer from Mali, Hélène Jayet began her artistic education at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Montpellier, then trained in graphic design, photography and photojournalism in Paris. She has been making portraits and reports for the press for the past ten years. In addition to her artistic work, Hélène Jayet teaches photography and visual arts in school and university workshops, and recently at the art and image department of the Kourtrajmé school.
Her first investigation, Chin-up - colored only!, is a counterpoint to that of Casimir Zagoursky who, at the beginning of the century, photographed the richness of the indigenous hairstyles of Africa, immortalizing them in his numerous travel diaries. In contrast to Zagoursky’s voyeuristic approach, Hélène Jayet proposes an approach that is similar to a performance. Her project includes both the photographic act and the deployment of the photographic studio, the discussion with her subjects, always Afro-descendants, and the proposal, as a whole, to raise one’s head proudly (chin-up!).
First exhibited in 2013, the Chin-up - colored only! series continues to grow and offers Afro-descendants a space to take control of their image. It plunges us into an African iconographic history that colonisation has transformed into a series of acts of predation, and proposes a way out... By raising the chin-up!
Since this work, the artist has returned to drawing and developed a new style. Starting with images gleaned from historical works, photographs or the canvas, Hélène Jayet reinterprets, blackening her Canson, point by point, until the original image is blurred, forcing us to step back. An extension of her photographs, this practice transforms the pixels of the prints into a series of ink stains, which sometimes densely populate her sheets, and recreate imaginary landscapes. Realistic or abstract, these drawings are intimate.
The artist’s photographs have been exhibited at the La Gacilly festival, the Fondation Zinsou in Benin, the Rencontres photographiques de Guyane, the Bamako and Dakar biennials, as well as at the Macaal in Marrakech, the BOZAR museum in Brussels and the Afrikan Museum in the Netherlands.
In 2022, the artist participated in a residency on the island of Gorée, supported by the French Institute in Senegal, which ended with a solo exhibition presenting a new body of work around the botanical history of the island and the ecological question in Senegal. The same year, Hélène Jayet takes part in the second edition of the Biennale du Congo in Kinshasa.
CURRICULUM VITAE
SOLO SHOWS | Sélection
2022
Echo Système(s), Institut français du Sénégal, Biennale de Dakar OFF – SN
2021
On (H)air, Africa 2020 Halle Tropisme, Montpellier - FR
CANAL ROYAL : Echo Système(s), CRAC Occitanie, Sète - FR
Colored only - Chin Up !, Galerie Chambre claire hors les murs Université de Rennes 2, Rennes – FR
2020
Colored only - Chin Up !, EMBRACING, Black History Month, American University, Paris - FR
2019
Ma tribu imaginaire, résidence et exposition à la Villa Soudan, Biennale de Bamako OFF - ML
Colored only - Chin Up !, 6ème édition des Rencontres Photographiques de Guyane Sentier de Loyola, Rémire-Montjoly, et CIAP, St Laurent du Maroni, Guyane - FR
2018
Colored only - Chin Up !, AFRICA IS NO ISLAND, Fondation Zinsou - BEN
Colored only - Chin Up !, AFROTOPIA, Rencontres de Bamako, Afrikan Museum - NL
Colored only - Chin Up !, THE POLITICS OF IMAGES, Ipatanga, FIF - BR
Colored only - Chin Up !, BRIDGE, Biennale de Dakar, Mupho,Saint-Louis - SN
Colored only - Chin Up !, AFRICA IS NO ISLAND, Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, MA
Chroniques Maliennes, « I love Africa », Festival de la Gacilly-Baden - AT
2017
Colored only - Chin Up !, Rencontres Photographiques du Xème, Paris -FR
Colored only - Chin Up !, AFROTOPIA, Biennale de Bamako - ML
Colored only - Chin Up !, THE POLITICS OF IMAGES, Festival International de Fotografia de Belo
Chroniques Maliennes, « I love Africa », Festival de la Gacilly - FR
2014
Adoptés, L’origine de l’histoire, Enfance et Famille d’adoption, Sisteron - FR
Colored Only, Summer of photography, Alliance Française de Bruxelles - BE
2013
Colored Only, Espace Transit, Montpellier - FR
Adoptés, L’origine de l’histoire, Conseil Général Haute-Garonne,
Toulouse - FR
Adoptés, L’origine de l’histoire, Les Olivetains, Saint-Bertrand de
Comminges - FR
GROUP SHOWS
2022
KIAF, 31 PROJECT, Seoul – KR
ART-O-RAMA, 31 PROJECT, Marseille - FR
Fragments, 31 PROJECT x Galerie Antoine Dupin, Cancale - FR
Colored only - Chin Up !, “A coprs perdu” Cité des Arts de la Réunion
Festival Everybody, Carreau du Temple, Paris - FR
2021
AKAA, Galerie Véronique Rieffel - FR
Canal Royal, CRAC Occitanie - FR
2020
SMALL, 31 PROJECT, Paris – FR
Galeristes, 31 PROJECT, Paris – FR
Messe pour le temps présent, variations (curated by: Charlotte Lidon), 31 PROJECT, Paris - FR
2018
Colored Only, Biennale Africaine de Bamako « Afrotopia » Afrikan
Museum, NL
Colored Only, « The politics of images », Festival Foto International
Ipatinga - BR
Colored Only, BRIDGE Off Biennale de Dakar, Musée de la photographie de Saint-Louis - SN
Colored Only, « Africa is no Island », Musée d’Art Contemporain Africain Al Maaden, Marrakech - MA
2017
Colored Only, Biennale Africaine de Bamako « Afrotopia », Musée National du Mali - Mali
Colored Only, Rencontres Photographiques du 10 eme, Paris - FR
Colored Only, « The politics of images », Festival Foto International Belo Horizonte - BR
2015
Colored Only, Embodied Spaces, Gallery Framer Framed, Amsterdam – NL
2014
Colored Only, La parole aux femmes, Fondation Blachère, Apt - FR
Colored Only, « Where we’re at - others voices of gender », Summer of photography BOZAR Brussels - BE
Colored Only, Festival ÉMOI photographique d’Angoulême - FR
2013
Chroniques maliennes, Distant Horizons, Third Floor Gallery, Cardiff, - UK
2011
Nous Somme(s) Transphotographiques NORD[S], Tri postal Lille - FR
Colored Only, Festival Fotografia Europea Reggio Emilia - IT
Colored Only, Circulation(s), Jardins de Bagatelle, Paris - FR
2010
Chroniques Maliennes, Biennale de Luang Prabang OFF,
Luang Prabang - Laos
2008
Chroniques Maliennes, Festival international du Scoop et du journalisme, Angers – FR
RESIDENCIES
2022
Institut français du Sénégal, Centre socio-culturel Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye Maison Saint-Jean, Île de Gorée – SN
2019
Résidence Ifitry dans le cadre de la biennale de Casablanca, Essaouira, MA
Résidence Villa Soudan, Biennale off de Bamako, ML
EDUCATION
2001
École Image ouverte – Photographie
École Emi – Cfd, Paris – Photojournalisme
École Multimédia, Paris – Graphisme
2000
École des Beaux-arts de Montpellier – Arts plastiques
WITH 31 PROJECT
EXHIBITIONS
2022
Fragments, group show, Cancale - FR
2020
SMALL, group show
Messe pour le temps présent, variations, group show, commissariat Charlotte Lidon
ARTFAIRS
2022
KIAF, Seoul - KR
ART-O-RAMA, Marseille - FR
2020
Galeristes, Paris - FR
PUBLICATION
Messe pour le temps présent, variations