À visage découvert .

Beyond its presence in art history and among the attitudes, questions, and rituals of different cultures, the face is the subject of particular attention and insistent anxiety. In human custom, the face is found at the crossroads of our relationships with memory, the sacred, and death.

The Fondation Cartier’s project approaches the face as opposed to the portrait, that is as opposed to the presentation of a person seized in his/her context, according to a mimetic concept of his/her likeness. This meaning concerns each face, well beyond the portrait of an individual and apart from any resemblance or similarity to the model.

The faces in this exhibit, whether structured by their expression, overwhelmed by passion, or shut down by death, were chosen because they are each representative of all faces.