Stéphan Lévy-Kuentz's Scoptophilic Night: Alain Fleischer's 'Exhibitions'

Stéphan Lévy-Kuentz has published a penetrating essay on Alain Fleischer's photographic series 'Exhibitions', released by Dumerchez. The series involves projecting pornographic images onto blind building facades at night and photographing the combined scene of sexual activity and urban landscape. Lévy-Kuentz emphasizes two meanings of 'exhibition': artistic manifestation and sexual practice, aligning with Fleischer's view that pornography is at the origin of photography. The essay compares these works to other images with similar formal devices, including a diptych of Botticelli's 'Annunciation' and a shot from Hitchcock's 'Rear Window', as well as film stills. Lévy-Kuentz draws on literary references from Sade, Bataille, Klossowski, Deleuze, Quignard, Debord, and Didi-Huberman to reveal the urban imaginary of the city and the links between art and sex. Additionally, a special issue of the journal 'Le Genre humain' (directed by Maurice Olender, published by Seuil) focuses on Alain Fleischer as a writer, edited by Jutta Fortin and Jean-Bernard Vray, aiming to recognize him as a major contemporary French author long ignored by literary criticism.