Audio Guide read by Frederik Busch
Maxime Muller (France)
After a scientific course and medicine studies, Maxime decided to follow photography and graduated from of Bloo École in Lyon, France. Currently, Maxime studies at the prestigious École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie en Arles.
His work addresses the psychological and physical mechanism which are used to construct and marginalize groups. Patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, the world of drag queens, queer communities and the war in Algeria are among his topics. Mixing personal history and collective memory, he questions the genre of fictional autobiography.
He self-published his first series DYSTOPIA and also did a fanzine about „The Girl you lost to Cocaïne“ in 2019. He was a finalist for the Prix Paris Panthéon Sorbonne Pour l’Art Contemporain. His work was exhibited at the Bastille Design Center as well as in Montreuil and Arles.
Maxime about The Girl you lost to Cocaine
„The Girl you lost to Cocaine“ explores the world of drag queens. I have been working on this project since 2017 and am continuing to do so. I want to show the power of transformation and the diversity of expression from within the community of cis-gendered, trans, nonbinary and gender nonconforming individuals. The People I collaborate with are based in France, Germany and Belgium.
The Jury Statement
Maxime Muller’s diverse visual language and aesthetic pays homage to a rich history of analogue photography in the 20th century. Thinking ahead, Maxime Muller guides an antiquated technique into the twenty-first century. The gazes of August Sander, Andy Warhol, Nan Goldin and Jack Pierson transcend themselves through his imagery. The approach Maxime has chosen portraits a diversely spread drag community as a group of rebellious and lively people, whose members transform their non- conforming attitude through drag into an intense joy of life.
