OUR SON, MY MOON

OUR SON, MY MOON
David Meskhi

Interview with Aurélie Voltz

Movement. Colours. Figures. David Meskhi's images follow one another like fragments extracted from a leap, an effort, an impulse. At high speed, between chance and intuition, the photographer captures an extraordinary variation of bodies sculpted by light and weightlessness. Athletes, frozen in mid-flight, are captured in an infinite pause. The leaps become astronaut-like pauses, the ascents gravity-defying dives. Sometimes, a waltz of hair, a triangle of hands and feet falling into a blue void, a pair of outstretched legs; all seem to be part of the same cosmos. The one reflected in the stars scattered across a few pages, the silhouette of the moon as the ultimate choreographer, sharpening the rhythms.

Son of a former Soviet gymnastics coach, David Meskhi highlights the pure athletic gesture. Editions Light Motiv, along with artistic director Nolwen Lauzanne and the team from the Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Saint Etienne (MAMC+) designed an elegant layout that opens flat, leaving plenty of room for movement. The book's inspiration comes from the dynamics of the leaps that, page after page, ask us about what we are seeing, a piece of the body under a line of light, gymnasts in suspension. The interview between David Meskhi and Museum Director Aurélie Voltz, translated into English and French, puts into perspective the inspirations in geometric angles and movement that he draws from the constructivist work of Russian artist Alexander Rodchenko. This interview reveals the keys to Meskhi's pictorial vault, where gestures never cease to be accomplished.

The ‘Our Son, My Moon’ exhibition, for which the book was designed, has been awarded the ‘Paris 2024’ label and is shown at the MAMC+ in Saint-Etienne from 9 november 2024 to 16 march 2025. It marks the reopening of the museum after its renovation.

Technical features

You can view or download the press release kit (visuals, book cover, book layout and press release PDF).

"His camera angles seem just as improbable as the positions of his subjects, as if David Meskhi were also flying over the world. […] Through his work, he seeks “an eternal loop, scenes without beginning or end”, a harmony between the movement of the body and light. In what is, to say the least, a gloomy era, his images provide a welcome lightness..."

Bathilde Fleuret, LM Magazine, janvier 2025