Jean-Christian Bourcart came to prominence in his native France for his 1992 series Infertile Madonnas, which documented life in a Frankfurt brothel. This series was later published with an introduction written by Nan Goldin. Bourcart’s training in both photography as well as psychology has been the foundation of this 2006 Prix du du Jeu de Paume winner’s photography and film work since. Bourcart’s provocative oeuvre reveals clandestine, sub-cultural worlds as well as the psychological tension of our daily reality. He has made films in wartime Sarajevo, documented the ghettos of Camden, NJ- America’s most dangerous city, as well as the sexual underworld of New York. In the series Human After All Bourcart veers from his usual documentary approach and stages a theatre of the grotesque with simple props and hand painted volunteer models. This dramatic series with references to classical sculpture presents twisted figures, contorted poses and faces shrouded in sardonic masks. The artist aims to illustrate not only man’s incessant inhumanity but also his inner emotional disfiguration. As the artist states, “according to Nietzsche the man who killed God was the ugliest man in the world because he couldn’t stand being looked at”. Bourcart’s photography and films have been shown worldwide and are in the collection of such prominent institutions as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Genève; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia; Bibliothéque Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes, Paris; and the Soros Foundation, Obala Center, Sarajevo.
