The work of the photographer Robin Plus addressed the notions of the vulnerable bodies and the normative architecture.

The models are generally Robin’s friends and acquaintances, who crisscross urban and suburban spaces often threatened by the encroaching gentrification. At parties or for the sake of photography their choreographies defy the architectural environment they are immersing themselves in.

Robin Plus does not strive to lay down a visual manifesto or to build a body of overtly political work. Influenced by his friend Wolfgang Tillmans, he infuses in his work a sense of counterculture romanticism which is strengthens by the fact that all photographs are taken outdoors, in the Camargue, in Marseille, Paris, Rotterdam, or Warsaw.

Presenting Robin Plus’s work in a city like Arles is not without consequence. The affirmation of a non-heteronormative subjectivity in an urban space is liable to stir up feelings of hatred.

The exhibition “SOAP” took place in a domestic space – the curator’s apartment. The intention is to reveal the intimate side of his body of works and to recreate a safe space for the discussion around it. If the barren architectures provoke a confrontation, the domestic settings allow an empathy.

The bedroom, turned into a “Beat Environment” resonates with gabber beat. It is also the projection room for an experimental slide-show video that combines Rotterdam architecture with hardcore music, thus completing the panorama of affects represented in the living room, including those expressed by Thien-Ngoc Ngo-Rioufol’s satyric, sexual drawings

More on the Extramentale website