SONOMA, CALIFORNIE | ARI MARCOPOULOS

California has become a place of adoption for Ari Marcopoulos, born in the Netherlands and relocated to the U.S. in the late seventies. Since then, he has lived in New York.
A photographer but also a filmmaker, his eclectic research is characterized by a dedication to the world of subcultures, particularly communities linked to skateboarding, graffiti, and artists. A compulsive photographer, he doesn’t have a preferred medium but rather an obsessive repetition in the search for ‘patterns.’ Much of the work happens afterward, to give shape to a book or an exhibition, to a film or a fanzine.

The scene of this classic residential suburb in Sonoma seems timeless, frozen in black and white that doesn’t hinder the dynamism and gestures. Who are these two boys, or girls, with their faces not just covered, but masked? The almost alien dimension of these human subjects is surprising but not unsettling, the hand is about to reveal or perhaps simply moves.
Concealing one’s identity, one’s face, is an almost canonical characteristic: whether it’s a safety choice when dwelling in illegality even through artistic practices, or a stylistic choice, leaving space for another, mysterious identity to be imagined.

Whether it’s a skateboard, a can of spray paint, or a musical instrument, these ‘machines’ are conceived as tools for production. Like the camera for Marcopoulos, the model, performance, and capabilities are of little importance—often his photographs resemble photocopies or large-scale prints. What is distinctive and meaningful is the ability to capture disturbing elements. Chaos, rebellion without shouting or excess, like the raw, handmade masks of Sonoma, Californie, tell the story of a culture, a choice, and a way of life, a sharing of values that endure through decades of fashions, returns, and trends upheld as consistent and original. Marcopoulos not only traces the lines of these cultures but also redefines the canons of portraiture, which he applies to subjects with covered faces, an apparently irreconcilable contradiction that instead reveals all its strength and the ability—if not empathy—of the photographer to record and narrate it.

The artwork is part of the group exhibition “All in the Name of the Name. The sensitive surfaces of graffiti”, curated by Hugo Vitrani for the 2024 edition of the Rencontres d’Arles festival, July 1–September 29, 2024.

Ari Marcopoulos
Sonoma, Californie, 2008
Courtesy of the artist / Frank Elbaz

11/09/24