"Twisting at My Birthday Party, NYC" (1980), by Nan Goldin, from the series "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency." NAN GOLDIN
Night has fallen over the Grand Palais. "This Will Not End Well": From the title alone, Nan Goldin sets the tone. Her retrospective, which fills the Salon d'Honneur of the Paris landmark, is steeped in mourning. Spanning half a century of creation, the photography superstar presents not a single print, but a stream of images – five installations made up of videos or slideshows. Each unfolds, isolated, within as many architecturally designed velvet cells: "black bodies," as scenographer Hala Wardé describes them, traversed by the rivers of images Goldin has been composing since the early 1980s. Here, however, they flow more like the river Styx than streams of enchantment.
The chronicler of a generation decimated by drugs and AIDS, Goldin stands out as a survivor. Now 72, she embraces the role with conviction throughout an exhibition that becomes a lamentation. In the credits for each of her works, re-edited for this project that has traveled from Amsterdam to Milan, the artist carefully lists the names of all those around her who have been lost. The list is long. She has also added a tribute to those killed in Gaza, who, she said, haunt her.
