Antoine d'Agata: Photography as Martial Art

Antoine d'Agata, born in 1961 in Marseille, is the subject of a major Paris exhibition at Le Bal (until April 7) and Galerie des Filles du Calvaire (March 14–April 27), curated by Fannie Escoulen and Bernard Marcadé. Known for his radical photographic and literary work, d'Agata emerged in the late 1990s with books like De Mala Muerte and De Mala Noche, documenting Central America. His practice blurs documentary and intimate autobiography, often involving sex and drugs as means to dissolve boundaries between photographer and subject. He describes photography as a 'martial art' of social war, rooted in chaos and violence. Recently, he has shifted to digital and video, notably with the film Atlas, which features monologues from women he met across ten countries. D'Agata critiques capitalism and prostitution, seeing resistance in those he photographs. He cites situationism and punk as influences, along with authors like Céline, Artaud, Bataille, and Guyotat. The exhibition presents large accumulative installations that juxtapose day and night images, aiming to preserve chaos and fragmentary experience. D'Agata has not taken photos since a 2011 trip to Libya, following a difficult experience in Cambodia.