PARIS.- Galerie Michel Rein presents the exhibition Polonia and… by Allan Sekula. This is the fifth solo exhibition by Allan Sekula at the gallery over a 15 years collaboration (previous exhibitions in 2008, 2004, 2001 & 1998).

The exhibition shows works from the series Polonia and other Fables which, over the past two years, has been exhibited at the Renaissance Society (Chicago), Zacheta Gallery (Warsaw), Ludwig Museum (Budapest), Media City Seoul and Belfast Exposed.

Since the early 1970s Allan Sekula's work has bridged the gap between conceptual art and documentary practices, focusing on economic and social themes ranging from family life, work and unemployment, to schooling and the military industrial complex. While calling many of the conventions of documentary into question, he continues to see photography as a social practice, answerable to the world and its problems.

In the series Polonia and other Fables, the artist combines a very personal exploration of his Polish roots with a wider investigation into emigration and the Polish-American relations in the world today. In the footsteps of the artist's paternal grandparents, the series travels from Poland to the United States. Although occasionally steering towards the autobiographical - the series features the artist's parents, images of a Polish blacksmith refers to Sekula's grandfather's occupation before emigrating - these personal details lend themselves to the wider issues being investigated, from the Polish community in Chicago to the omnipresence of the United States in Poland.

A catalogue was published by the Renaissance Society and the Zacheta Gallery and is available for purchase at the gallery (Polonia and other Fables, 2009, texts by Katrzyna Ruchel-Stockmans, Hilde Van Gelder, Hamza Walker, Karolina Lewandowska, 23.3cm x 22.9cm, 120p).

Allan Sekula's work has been shown in museums and exhibitions around the world, including the Sao Paulo Biennale (2010), La Virreina, Centre de la Imatge, Barcelona (2011, 2010), Taipei Biennial (2010), Mukha Anvers (2010), Documenta Kassel (2007, 2002), Centre Pompidou Paris (2006, 1996), Whitney Museum (2006, 2002, 1993, 1976), Generali Foundation, Vienna (2010, 2007, 2006, 2003), MACBA, Barcelona (2004, 2001), Winterthur Foto Museum (2001), Foto Institute Rotterdam (2001, 1997).

His film The Forgotten Space (co-directed with Noël Burch) premiered at the 2010 Venice Film Festival, winning the Orizzonte Special Jury Prize.

French premiere : December 2, 8PM, Salle Jean Dame, rue Léopold Bellan, Paris 2e

Allan Sekula’s upcoming exhibitions include: Oceans + Campfires : Allan Sekula and Bruno Serralongue at the San Francisco Art Institute, curated by Hou Hanru (30 November 2011 - 18 February 2012), Allan Sekula : Film Retrospective at Stills, Scotland's Centre for Photography (12 November - 18 December 2011) and Ship of Fools, also at Stills, Scotland's Centre for Photography (21 January 2012 - 18 March 2012) both curated by Kirsten Lloyd, The Dockers Museum, La Criée Centre d’Art Contemporain de Rennes , curated by Jürgen bock (6 April 2012 – 20 May 2012).

Dan Perjovschi / Drawing Cioran
Galerie Michel Rein is also exhibiting Dan Perjovschi's third solo show at the gallery (Free Style 2009, Dan Perjovschi 2006).

Born in 1961 in Sibiu (Romania), Dan Perjovschi is an artist, author and an illustrator.

Dan Perjovschi makes drawings daily which are similar to newspaper cartoons, caustic and funny at the same time. An attentive chronicler of contemporary society, he combines personal observations and experiences with his thoughts about macro political and social subjects. He builds his sets of drawings by reading numerous articles, but also by observing what takes place around him.

In 2011, the Embassy of France in Romania and the French Institute of Bucharest, in agreement with the City hall of Bucharest, invited Dan Perjovschi to participate in the remembrance of the hundredth birthday of Emil Cioran. During several weeks, the drawings of the artist, illustrating quotations of Cioran in French and Romanian were shown all around the city of Bucharest.

This exceptional project brings together a great writer who "thinks in Romanian" and "writes in French" and Dan Perjovschi who uses his favorite medium, the pencil and his sharp intelligence, to translate Cioran's work into his own language.

The writer and the artist both spent their childhood in Sibiu. But the connexion between them is deeper. It is an aesthetic order: the work of Cioran contains collections of ironic, skeptical and hard-hitting aphorisms. These sentences, thrifty and perfect formed, are engraved in the mind of the reader. Dan Perjovschi's drawings, apparently as simple as children's drawings - three lines, two words - are visual aphorisms. Cioran and Perjovschi are subversive, in the etymological sense.

The gallery presents all the drawings by Dan Perjovschi, as well as a documentary film directed by Adrian Bulboaca.

A book containing the drawings by Dan Perjovschi and images of the project in the city of Bucharest is available at the gallery (Cioran dans la rue par Dan Perjovschi, 2011, 133 p, texts by Gabriel Liiceanu, Horia-Roman Patapievici, editions : French Embassy in Rumania and French Institute of Bucarest)

The work of Dan Perjovschi has been exhibited in various international institutions such as the San Francisco Art Institute (2010), the Centre Pompidou Paris (2010), the EACC (Espai d’Art Contemporani de Castello, Spain, with Lia Perjovschi, 2010), the Lyon Biennial (2009), the MoMA (2007), the Tate Modern (2006), the Moderna Museet (2006), the Venice Biennale (Romanian Pavillion, 2003), the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2001), Manifesta 2 (1998).