Yasumasa Morimura, 9 visages .

The Fondation Cartier’s exhibit of a series of Yasumasa Morimura’s photographs is the Japanese artist’s first personal exhibit in France. The works presented are photographs inspired by the great masterpieces of Western and Japanese art. Through dressing up, photomontage, and computer-generated images, Morimura uses images of his body and facial expressions as a replacement for those of the subjects depicted in the paintings he has chosen as his models (Rembrandt, Manet, etc.). A reflection on the proliferation and manipulation of images, Morimura’s work lies at the heart of the debate on the question of the permanence of national cultural identities faced with the emergence of so-called international art.

Morimura’s approach is that of a man whose quest for his identity takes place through dressing up, that of an artist who searches for his identity in the dialogue he establishes with art’s great masterpieces, that of a Japanese artist who takes on the founding principle of Japanese culture, characterized by borrowing and citation but also the adaptation and enhancement of this borrowing or citation.