ARGUMENT (VERSION ANGLAISE) n°13 - Page 1 - 13 Visual on 2e cover: The Green Tea Bride. Self-portrait, C-print pasted on Diasec and aluminium, 120 x 120 cm, 2006 Visual in 1re cover: Painting (Caravaggio's Medusa). Selfportrait, Archival pigment print on canvas, UV coating, 142 x 142 cm, 2010 Argument | 3 Argument Artistic and literary magazine The art magazine that gives artists a voice Editorial An anniversary issue celebrating the art of portraiture and self-portraiture! Argument magazine presents its thirteenth issue, marking its third anniversary. The theme of this issue is the art of portraiture and self-portraiture, a classic theme in painting and photography for representing a person in terms of their physical appearance, but also revealing their character, emotions, history and identity. We are delighted to present eight artists, one gallery owner and one collective from six countries and three continents: Rachel Hardouin Kimiko Yoshida Camille Pozzo di Borgo Khaled Takreti Mathilde Polidori Nataff. Dalel Ouasli Ömer Eken Mélodie Lenglart Ponte di Ferro The Argument magazine project was born of the idea of bringing together works of art, an audience of readers and artists, present through interviews, and conceiving the whole thing as a collective exhibition by placing the artists at the centre of the subject. You won't find any advertising here, a deliberate choice to maintain our independence. You can buy the print version on the magazine's website and the digital versions on the Cafeyn, PressReader, Magzter, Readly, Scopalto and Kono Magazine platforms. We are distributed in bookshops by Les Petits Éditeurs and are listed with Electre and Dilicom. We want to create a direct link between the public, the works and the artist. It's the artists who count above all: They write the world with matter, They share their visions and dreams with us, playing with shapes and colours. They radiate poetry, wisdom and emotion. We hope to see you every quarter for a new issue or special issues like the one on Palestinian artists that we brought out in May 2025, which you can buy at the bookshop of the Arab World Institute in Paris. I hope you enjoy your reading! François Beauxis-Aussalet Publishing director 4 | Argument Number 13 July 2025 Editorial Committee; Eduardo Pérez Viloria Rachel Hardouin Alexandre Ortiz Hervias Adeline Bailleux Axelle Delorme Séverine Lenoir Emmanuelle Callerame Ramsés Luquis Ortega Serena Milite Jacinthe Adande Contributors : Graphic designers : Jennifer Lemoy Léa Rimoux Serena Milite Lucie Ayrault Eni Reves Maxine Courtabessis Karoliina Hujanen Claire Savouré: proofreader Audrey Boon: website Publishing Director François Beauxis-Aussalet redaction@revue-argument.fr ISBN : 978-2-487929-14-2 ISSN : 3003-2679 Legal registration date: 15 April 2025 Printer Pixartprinting S.p.A. Via 1 Maggio, 8 30020 Quarto d'Altino VE, Italia Publisher Association revue Argument Artistic and literary publication Head office: 1 bis, rue Gambetta 64200 Biarritz Association under the law of 1901, registered on 29 January 2022 with the S/P of Bayonne N°W641013330 / Siren 910237510 The art of portraiture and selfportraiture 144 List of works Argument | 5 Contents Rachel Hardouin Mathilde Polidori Ponte di Ferro Camille Pozzo di Borgo Khaled Takreti 06 74 20. 92 56 120 64 132 38 108 Kimiko Yoshida Dalel Ouasli Ömer Eken Mélodie Lenglart Nataff. 6 | Argument 1 Give Me a Lift, series of 8 on Matt 320 g paper, 10 x 15 cm, 2021 On the fourth floor of a Parisian building, away from the hustle and bustle of shop windows, a space pulsates where art is not on display: it reveals itself. It is here that Rachel Hardouin has founded not just a gallery, but a refuge for truths that are not afraid of the shadows. Her signature, "15 Curiosity & Experiences" is not a slogan: it's an ontological statement. Her relationship with art is born of inner silence, a sensitivity honed by listening to the margins, the imperfect, what has not been domesticated by the market. She doesn't follow trends, it subverts them. She's not looking for beauty, but for cracks: cracks in the fabric. fractures through which a difficult, sometimes brutal, but always necessary light passes. In this world saturated with images, Rachel cultivates intimacy as an act of resistance. Intimacy is not what is small, closed or modest: it is what confronts us with reality, what makes us forces us to rethink the place of the body, of experience, of desire. In this way, her gallery becomes a laboratory, a space of friction and passage, where unlabelled artists find a place to speak from the wound and from the game. Rachel Hardouin Eduardo Pérez Viloria Venezuelan writer, poet and broadcaster A gallery in the heights of the soul: art according to Rachel Hardouin Rachel Hardouin doesn't exhibit works: she exhibits processes, thoughts and bodies in transit. Each exhibition she orchestrates is a form of curatorial performance, a collective work of affinities and dissonances. Tel A medium of the invisible, she weaves links, provokes encounters, listens for the tremor of what has not yet been said. An advocate of art brut and art singulier, she opens the way to what is created outside the canon, outside the art world. the institution, the easy applause. It is there, in the spontaneous, in the untamed, that she finds an overwhelming authenticity, a truth that can neither be explained nor ignored. Rachel Hardouin does not represent artists: she accompanies them. She doesn't build a market:she opens up a mental space. At a time when everything can be bought, she insists on what has no price:the aesthetic experience as a form of intimate transformation. Perhaps that's why his gallery doesn't have a ground floor:because to get at the real thing, you have to get up high. Not out of pretentiousness, but out of poetic gravity. Argument | 7 ↑ 2 Éléonore Pironneau, Embracing - in the box, giclée print on Hahnemühle Museum 350 g paper, 65 x 55 cm, 2019 Rachel Hardouin 8 | Argument Argument | 9 Why do you see the notion of intimity as central to the conception of art? Art is intimate. Creation is intimate. The spectator's view of a work is intimate. And what role does your gallery play in this reflection on intimacy? The artist proposes a different way of looking at and thinking about the world, and invites us to reconsider the notion o f intimacy. My gallery responds to an urgent need: where do we stand on the question of intimacy? The gallery is universalist, a conduit for culture, independent by virtue of the fact that it is entirely self-financed through my own work, and by highlighting artists and contributors who push back the social, religious, political and moral boundaries (...) that condition and limit the expression of our freedom. The signature of the gallery "15 Curiosity & Experiences" sums up this position. You've expressed a keen interest in underground cultures and marginal forms. Do you think that true art always emerges from the margins? What do you mean by this? Indeed, I'm looking for authenticity! I develop programming on the fringes of what is very often valued, because it responds to a strong trend, an ambient taste, a large number of likes from followers on social networks. I have very little interest in what the general public and the market think. I follow and rely on my feelings and my eye, which becomes sharper as time goes by. I like things that have a flaw, a glimmer of light in a world that, on the whole, no longer thinks and has become disengaged. The artists I support are committed and confront the reality of the world they live in. Where do you think art really comes from? Art doesn't always emerge from the margins. Art is born of talent and sensitivity that we listen to. Art is sometimes born o f a lack that finds its answer in an artistic experience, a medium, a close relationship between thought, body and matter. The body (the draughtsman's hand, the dancer's or painter's body, etc.) becomes the medium through which the message is conveyed to the audience. What role does experience play in a work of art? Experience can be a trap for the artist. Years of practising daily drawing, for example, forge the artist' s style, what we call "his handwriting", which is different from all the others. Experience becomes a double trap, because the artist must also forget the lessons he has learned in order to free himself and create his own style. However, it also saves time in the execution of a series of works or during a performance. And as far as the viewer's judgement is concerned, who is there to assess an artist's talent when they produce a drawing in just a few minutes, for example as part of a performance or dedication? The viewer is often unaware of the time that the artist spends each day drawing to achieve perfection according to his or her vision and the desired rendering. This working time, invisible to the viewer, is essential to understanding the value of this moment o f rapid execution. Do you see art as a vehicle for inner transformation? Art invites us to think about the world, to discover it from other perspectives. In this respect, art is a vehicle for inner transformation. Art touches a "sensitive knot" in every person. What is your relationship with art brut and art singulier? How is it fundamentally different from institutional or academic art? I love the spontaneity of art brut and art singulier artists. They transmit raw emotion, without filters or explicit references. This art, often perceived as lacking in artistic culture, touches me deeply. It is sometimes seen as an obvious way of expressing the living world, particularly through the spontaneity that characterises it. These two art f o r m s have freed themselves from the conventions o f institutional or academic art, offering a creation free of any artistic trend. Over time, however, they have become currents in their own right, with their own identity and free of all codes, which is a paradox. I encourage and represent artists from the art brut and art singulier movements in a variety of fields, including drawing, performance art, painting, photography and sculpture. 10 | Argument Rachel Hardouin ↑ 3 Hélène Barrier, Union of The Snakes, graphite and coloured pencil drawing on Arche paper, 50 x 65 cm, 2023 Argument | 11 So you see art brut and art singulier as a preliminary form of art? Yes, art brut and art singulier are truly the "anti-chamber" of art, a pure and authentic form that precedes codes and institutions. Do you see your role as gallerist as an artistic gesture in itself, a form of curatorial performance? Being a gallery owner is a passionate profession, made up of conversations with and between the artists in the gallery who form "a family". I encourage artistic encounters and dialogues... Which match or not ! "I love to provoke conversations between artists who don't know each other. I like to provoke conversations between artists who don't know each other, but whose complementary worlds and techniques I deeply appreciate. This cross-fertilisation offers a kind of journey through a theme. A common thread links them, consciously or unconsciously. As soon as the two protagonists play the game and detach themselves from the 'I', the result is magical in its power. Why did you choose an upstairs location for your gallery, away from the hustle and bustle of the local shops? The gallery is located on the 4 th floor of a modernist building, remarkable for its architecture and unique position in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. It's a stone's throw from the Grand Rex, the Nouvelle Athènes, the Arts et Métiers and the République. The hustle and bustle of commerce, meanwhile, can be found further down, in the rue du Faubourg-SaintDenis, which is alive with social mix and craftspeople. It's a district full of contrasts, with places like the New Morning and the Hôtel Amour close by. How does the modernist, almost brutalist architecture of your gallery influence the way you present art and interact with artists? Opening an upstairs gallery is a challenge. Few French people are used to browsing galleries on upper floors, like those in New York or Tokyo. Rue Martel, where my gallery is located, is home to seven other galleries and art foundations, all hidden away in buildings, with the exception of one. How can this upstairs gallery, in a space Does the "intimate" and luminous exhibition create a unique experience for visitors and artists alike? The choice of an upstairs gallery is an intimate choice, a place for a special encounter with the art world. It's a space for exchanges with artists, but also with historians, researchers, writers, performers... The setting is bold and free, far removed from the constraints of commercial art. I like the way t h e modernist, almost brutalist architecture meets the sensuality of the artistic proposal. This venue, this "inhabited" room creates a form of tension, escaping from conventional representations of intimacy. It is neither a boudoir, nor a baroque decor, nor a dungeon, but an open, luminous space that allows each artist's work to be welcomed in its own unique way, and to define its key message. Do you think that the gallery can now become a place of resistance to the widespread commercialisation of contemporary art? The gallery is a space of resistance, but also a space of resilience. The venue is a space for physical experiences with the public, a direct connection. The gallery's website (www.15martel.com) relays this proposition with the e-shop, on social networks and on NFT networks. With the exception of publications about the exhibitions on show, the gallery does not yet produce smallscale editions of works of art. The gallery's artists are keen to promote their work commercially and through partnerships with brands. The gallery's work is also that of an agent who accompanies and advises the artistic project.
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