Yvan Alvarez & Dylan Hausthor: Upon Onda

The idea of bringing together new works by the Geneva-based artist Yvan Alvarez and the American photographer Dylan Hausthor is rather based on an intuition, an interest in discovering the dialogue that could develop between them and in seeing if the presumed affinities between their approaches can be realised, than on a rigid juxtaposition guided by a fixed theme or aesthetic.

What they have in common appears tenuous at first glance. There is, of course, photography, a medium that is at the centre of their respective practices and to which they both seem to return tirelessly, despite their frequent forays into other forms of expression – from text to installation and from video to sculpture. Then there are some motifs, a crashed car, satellite dishes, but their repetition could be coincidental.

They also share a form of reluctance to say too much, to allow themselves to become too clearly involved in a subject or approach, and to solidify the meaning of their works. A form of withdrawal, perhaps, a tendency to step aside when things become too clear. A desire for fluidity of meaning, a nimble passage between media and image regimes. Their choices are very deliberate and precise, but they purposely give an impression of effortlessness, almost imply that each work could be the fruit of an auspicious accident.

Finally, they both seem to share an attachment to working with what is in front of them, capturing with photography debris picked up in the street or animals surprised in the forest. Both artists operate with an assertive economy of means, giving pride of place to what is found, to that which has an uncertain and transitory status – and which therefore still contains all the possibilities.

Bringing them together in an exhibition allows us, without artificially amalgamating their work, to find flexible passages between their two universes, each bringing out common characteristics in the other that tend not to be revealed at first glance.

– Danaé Panchaud, translated from French