paper 224 g/m2
White wooden frame, glass
11 3/4 x 11 3/4 in. each
20 1/4 x 20 1/4 in. framed
papier Canson 224 g/m2
Encadrement bois blanc, verre
30 x 30 cm chaque
51,5 x 51,5 cm encadré
L’Art du combat
L’Art du combat (2014), grave of mien and intent, two men face each other across a table from which comes a vaporous light. A heavy atmosphere weighs on this enigmatic scene placed between immaculate whiteness and deep blacks. Reprising the title of a book by the famous chess player David Bronstein1, in this work Jean Bedez revisits three photographs of a historic moment, in 1972, when, after more than twenty years of cold war standoff between East and West, the American defeated the Russian Boris Spassky, then holder of the title, to become world chess champion. As a game of fatal strategies, implying the sacrifice of numerous pieces by both sides, in which time and the management of time are the equivalents of a programmed execution, chess here was an allegory of the ruthless logic behind any power struggle.
