PROXEMICS

VIRGILE SIMON BERTRAND

Curator: Davina Lee

ArtisTree, 1/F Cornwall House, Taikoo Place, Island East, Hong Kong, China

21 October - 18 November 2009

From 21 October until 29 November 2009, a retrospective the work of Virgile Simon Bertrand from the last ten years was exhibited at ArtisTree, Swire Properties 20,000 feet purpose-built art space at Swire Island East.  Sponsored by Swire Properties, the exhibition PROXEMICS considered the unspoken rules of human relationships and the relationship between people and the space around them.  ‘Proxemics’, a term coined by the anthropologist Edward T. Hall identifies four distinct zones that mark our relationships with others.  Bertrand’s portraits and architectural photographs show how differently people behave within these invisible zones, depending on their relationship to the person next to them or to the space around them.  Over 75 of Bertrand’s photographs of people and places featuring iconic images of some of Asia’s most prominent personalities including artists, writers, designers, businessmen and architects were exhibited, including director Zhang Yimou, artists Liu Ye and Xing Danwen.

The exhibition was selected as one of the best exhibitions of 2009 by the South China Morning Post.

Diorama Projects presents ‘Proxemics’. Virgile Simon Bertrand’s portraits and architectural photographs consider the physical and emotional perceptions of space, from the way that people behave within the spaces allotted to them, to the way that space is manipulated within the physical confines of the built environment.