Your basket is currently empty!
The Radiant Fortnight 9 Hara Kiri in the countryside! Michel Lépinay
Quinzaine radieuse 9 - HARA KIRI À LA CAMPAGNE! MICHEL LÉPINAY, HARA KIRI'S FIRST PHOTOGRAPHER 1961-1966
From 24 June to 30 July 2017 / Opening on Saturday 24 June 2017 at 6.30 pm
Exhibition curators: Marc Bruckert & Thomas Mailaender
To mark the ninth edition of La Quinzaine radieusePiacé le radieux, Bézard - Le Corbusier from 24 June to 30 July 2017 in Piacé, presents the brand new exhibition Hara Kiri in the countryside! After the success ofHara Kiri Photo presented as part of the Rencontres d'Arles festival in 2016, Marc Bruckert and Thomas Mailaender, curators of the exhibition, delve into the archives of the collection of Michel Lépinay, Hara-Kiri's first photographer (1961-1966). Silver prints, contact sheets and posters for newsagents show us what went on behind the scenes of a 'cultural exception' in the stuffy world of the French press at the time. Insolence, provocation, graphic violence... from the Blaireau mill to the village café, the Hara Kiri spirit will be blowing through our countryside.
A professional photographer based in the ninth arrondissement of Paris, MICHEL LÉPINAY began working for HARA KIRI in 1961. A year later, he immortalised Georges Bernier's transformation into Professeur Choron (Hara-Kiri Service, Professeur Choron: Réponse à tout), the monthly magazine's offices being located next door to his studio, at 4 rue Choron. Working from scripts and designs by Gébé (assisted by Jean-Jacques Cartry for the layout and sets), Michel Lépinay photographed a number of fake advertisements and photo-novels, including The Queen of France against the French Republicfeaturing dancers Vélérie Camille and Christine Reynolds and the HARA KIRI team (Cavanna, Gébé, Fred, Wolinski, Reiser, Cabu, Melvin Van Peebles and, of course, Professor Choron). At the end of 1963, the covers of HARA KIRI switched to photography: in bloody red and charcoal black, the result was violent and expressionist. HARA KIRI, a "dangerous publication for young people", had found its own style: silly and nasty. Michel Lépinay left HARA KIRI in 1966, the year the paper was banned for a second time (for six months).
