2/3 Gallery presents the photography exhibition CHIPS, signed by Andrei Șerban.
CHIPS is the product of two contrasting worlds meeting in a Paris apartment. Starting his trip with a missed flight to Paris Fashion Week in 2021, Șerban was pulled in by a personal project that spanned across three years and has now launched a twin publication – one part photobook, one part diary.
The exhibition takes a closer look at the inner workings of the fashion world: the relationship between the models, the photographer and the modelling agencies. Chipping at the walls of the “fashion monster”, as he calls it, aspiring talents usually need to follow an almost predefined set of steps to get their foot in the door. Șerban hijacks this ladder and assembles his own low-budget/high-impact structure through a series of unfiltered photos in a contrasting place.
The exhibition is accompanied by a photo album and the artist’s diary. The photo album runs us through a 20sqm hoarder’s flat used as a background for shooting 19 different models, as well as intimate details, quiet objects, and still moments captured during three separate trips taken to the very same apartment in the city’s 19th arrondissement. Șerban creates set designs with stuff found in every room, exploits the clutter and turns it into a beautiful frame for the portraits, bringing depth and narrative to an otherwise dull comp card.
In the faithful and unedited reproduction of his diary from the last three years, he shares details of his personal life: working on shootings, thinking about them, second-guessing himself, writing his hopes down in pen, and documenting people he meets, shoots, or loves. After reading the intimate notes and flipping through the photos from the Paris apartment, you get to see everything that led to the project being completed.
The publication is produced in a print run of 100 copies—publisher: Paper Traffic. Printing house: Fabrik.
Șerban Andrei (b.1999, Bucharest, Romania) is an emerging photographer working around the fashion industry, with brief pitstops for experimentation in every other corner of the art world.
Taking the trips and doing everything himself—the calls and emails, carefully scheduling his shooting days in the short time visiting, managing a tight budget—all bring out a meticulous and ritualistic way of approaching things.
The exhibition is on view until March 17, 2024.
VISITING HOURS:
Thu – Fri : 16.00 – 19.00
Sat – Sun: 12.00 – 17.00
