Geert Goiris: Fight or Flight

In this solo exhibition, Belgian photographer Geert Goiris explores the subconscious, instinctive defence mechanisms at work in the human brain. The exhibition Fight or Flight is an allusion to a term widely used in psychology and neuroscience to describe the defence and flight responses triggered by the sympathetic nervous system. For Geert Goiris,
 this mechanism is a metaphor for reactions to the complexity of the modern world and the dilemma it creates: should we take on board constructive realism or take refuge while we wait for the radical rupture—as prophesied in apocalyptic narratives—to occur?

The exhibition layout devised by Geert Goiris looks at the possible effects that these mechanisms have on his photos. He compares and contrasts visions of the world that are at the same time poetic, abstract and realistic, focusing on the enigmatic aspect of his work. By using different media—posters of his prints in various formats stuck directly on to the wall—the artist investigates the paradoxical way in which photography can reveal environments in the smallest detail, while at the same time keeping secrets and matters left unsaid. He shows the way in which this lack of information gives way, in the end, to the imagination, while at the same time sparking a feeling of abandonment, loneliness, melancholy and detachment.
 Accordingly, the exhibition sets out to discuss the possibilities and limitations of photography, as well as the conditions commanding contemporary perception.

One of the leading photographers on the Belgian artistic scene, Geert Goiris
 (born in 1971) graduated from the École Supérieure des Arts Visuels Saint Luc, in Brussels, in 1993 and HISK in Antwerp in 2000. Since the mid-2000s, his work has often been shown at major events, including Manifesta 5 
(San Sebastian, Spain, 2004) and in foremost institutions, such as the Wiels in Brussels (2008), Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2010), the Kunsthalle 
in Hamburg (2011), the Museum 
of Contemporary Photography in Chicago (2015) and the Pompidou Centre in Metz (2016). His first monograph, Lying Awake, was published in 2013, 
to coincide with a major solo exhibition at M – Museum Leuven in Belgium.

Geert Goiris is represented in France by Art: Concept, Paris, and in Belgium by Catherine Bastide Gallery, Brussels.

Press information: Chloé Palau, Head of communication and press relations
chloe.palau.frachn@orange.fr

Frac Haute-Normandie is funded by Normandy Regional Council, The Minsitery of Culture and Communication / DRAC Normandy and Sotteville-lès-Rouen City Council.