Installation view of the exhibition "Jean Painlevé. Les pieds dans l'eau", Jea De Paume, Paris, 2022

Firstly, I need to distinguish between seeing art and the art of seeing. The first corresponds to a relatively passive look familiar to most people. A way of looking that can be more or less aware depending on the sensitivity involved, the culture, and the mood of the moment. On the other hand, the art of seeing engages the attention differently. It has to do more with noticing, realizing. And obviously, no need to be an art expert for that.

The first thought comes to me of the exhibition "Les pieds dans l'eau" which opened a few days ago in Jeu De Paume, in Paris. The show is a sort of retrospective on the pioneer of scientific cinema, Jean Painlevé (1902 - 1989). First of all, a doctor, he studied anatomy and histology at the Sorbonne. He immediately discovered his passion for cinema, and in 1927 he made the first film, "The Sticklebacks Egg."

Installation view of the exhibition "Jean Painlevé. Les pieds dans l'eau", Jea De Paume, Paris, 2022

© Archives Jean Painlevé

© Archives Jean Painlevé

What soon distinguishes him and contributes to his fame is a surrealist spirit and an unconventional attitude. The subject is not described but transmutes on an evocative level, transcends from the natural, and becomes dance, movement, fluid, form, and art. The film clips accessible in different projection rooms are foraying into organic life. It is no coincidence then that his prints appear among those of Man Ray, Brassaï, and Roger Parry at the Galerie de Pléiade in 1935.

Installation view of the exhibition "Jean Painlevé. Les pieds dans l'eau", Jea De Paume, Paris, 2022

© Archives Jean Painlevé

His fame intersecting the avant-garde is expressed primarily in his ability to slip between art and science. The vibrant Paris scene and numerous cultural acquaintances, in particular, played in favor. In short, his figure escapes labels and projects itself into a distant future, which almost looks more like our present. And this is what makes it still actual and, above all, inspiration for new generations of artists.

Installation view of the exhibition "Jean Painlevé. Les pieds dans l'eau", Jea De Paume, Paris, 2022

The exhibition focuses on the foreshore environment, where it all began. Strong tides characterize the Breton coast and the seabed, swarming creatures capable of igniting the curiosity of the aspiring visionary. Shrimps and crustaceans, other forms of organic life enhanced in detail, magnified, and almost exasperated in morphology by the director. A scientific fantasy that grants these organisms an unexpected vitality. Practically a stage personality. And among these, the hippocampus stands out as an authoritative protagonist of undisputed submarine elegance.

© Archives Jean Painlevé

Installation view of the exhibition "Jean Painlevé. Les pieds dans l'eau", Jea De Paume, Paris, 2022

But Painlevé is also an explorer of language and, therefore, of technology. The exhibition confirms its flexibility and the ability to juggle the growing inventions in the field of cinematography. Research goes hand in hand with its tools; this is undeniable. Several educational projects measure the innovations of the time up to the end of the seventies. The use of technological expedients remains the prerogative of experts; however, if one is patient to read, numerous clues help to appreciate the inventiveness, the ability to experiment, and the growing evolution of this field of observation.

© Archives Jean Painlevé

Installation view of the exhibition "Jean Painlevé. Les pieds dans l'eau", Jea De Paume, Paris, 2022

Central in the age of scientism such as ours is to re-evaluate Painlevé's "hybrid" experience and his ability to abstract narrative while remaining anchored to the experimental observation method. And here it comes, Patrick Haas quoted: "Film is the most realistic art there is ...". Is there perhaps a political dimension in this attachment to real things? It is worth recalling the film "The Octopus," forerunner of an environmentalist battle, even before it was possible to imagine it. It manifests animal discomfort in the face of human supremacy. The octopus, with its trailing motives, suffering, with no way of escape, in an increasingly artificial world, between glass walls, reveals a growing tension, according to some, attributable to the anxieties of the rising fascism between the two wars. Painlevé will launch against them through his works and militancy in human rights organizations.

© Archives Jean Painlevé

The post-war commitment is considerable, the list of appointments and activities boundless. I like to remember some works that show an interest in liquid crystals and the use of microscopes. The attention goes into the substance, uses a newly experimental aesthetic, intersects with electronic music, and anticipates a molecular, quantum, and nano-technological climate, all through a dance that is still fascinating.

Installation view of the exhibition "Jean Painlevé. Les pieds dans l'eau", Jea De Paume, Paris, 2022