Traveling Exhibition “In-Utile: A Choreographic Journey”

May 4–June 7, 2018
Opening reception Tuesday, May 15, 2018, at 12 p.m.
Photography exhibition by Maxcasa
IES cafeteria area (Building 5), St. Priest campus

Maxcasa captures the pointless gesture

Photographer Maxcasa presents a traveling exhibition born from the intersection of dance and photography, in pursuit of the “useless gesture”…
There are five of them, clad in form-fitting black and white costumes. A few words, then everything spirals out of control… A breathless race. The movements follow one another relentlessly; the dancers traverse, crisscross, and exhaust the spaces. Their faces etched with exertion, their bodies cross paths, grasp one another, entwine, or push each other away. Hearts race. Beads of sweat form on their faces under the strain. The costumes come loose, lost along the way…
Maxcasa

In Search of the Pointless Gesture

Maxcasa’s keen eye captures the bodies set in motion by choreographer Leonardo Montecchia (Cie de la Mentira). This hard-to-categorize choreographer, who loves to track our everyday gestures, spent several months in residence at the University of Montpellier in 2015 and 2016 (see the article “Précieux inutile”). Immersed in this “city within a city”—with its 45,000 students and 4,500 staff members—Leonardo and his performers lived among its inhabitants, tracking down that rarity: the “useless gesture.”
Today, photographer Maxcasa captures the choreographer’s dynamic work through still images. “Everything is there for the taking, but you have to seize it,” he says. “If you run any slower than the dancers, you won’t stand a chance of finding your place. Run too fast, and they’ll have vanished behind a hidden door. Without warning, they create a dance space between two staircases or two walls.”

“Stories in the Spotlight”

A professional photographer based in Montpellier who specializes in photojournalism, Maxcasa also works in portraiture, architecture, performing arts, studio photography, and video. “I tell stories through light for the people I photograph. I look at them with a subjective and compassionate eye, remaining faithful to the trust they place in me. Responding to a smile with an image, constantly seeking the essence of truth in a scene, bringing out the lines of a composition, letting myself be moved by a glance. Experiencing sublime moments, wonderful encounters, and unlikely situations—so as to forget nothing and to make the most of everything we are given to see, in order to better share it in return.”
Traveling exhibition at theUM, from September 2017 to spring 2018.