Jean-Luc Mylayne. The Autumn of Paradise is the French artist’s first institutional solo exhibition in Switzerland. For over forty years now, the work of Jean-Luc Mylayne (b. 1946) focuses on the encounter with birds. He captures their fleeting presence with the camera. The bird in its natural habitat is Mylayne’s distinctive subject, serving not just as actor but also as conceptual partner on equal terms.

Together with Mylène Mylayne, his wife, collaborator and namesake, the photographer travelled through rural France and the American Southwest, creating an artistic oeuvre that is as radical as it is poetic. Mylayne’s photographs are a far cry from anecdotal snapshots and classical documentary or nature photography. They are the result of months and sometimes years of preparation and show the bird as an individual. In the period of time indicated in a work’s title the artist has explored the surrounding area, observed the selected animal and slowly gained its trust without feeding or taming it. Mylayne’s photographs are unique prints. Equally unique is the moment when the artist presses the shutter release button: a moment that will never return.

Jean-Luc Mylayne. The Autumn of Paradise presents an ensemble of about forty works created between 1979 and 2008.

A joint project with the Fondation Vincent van Gogh in Arles, France, the exhibition will travel to the Long Museum in Shanghai, China, the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hanover, Germany, and Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography in Amsterdam, Netherlands, following its presentation in Aarau.