Varda felt an affinity for potatoes, she explained in a 2011 interview, because like them, she could grow in different directions and renew herself. She began calling herself a visual artist only late in her career when, in 2003, she was invited to show her photographic work at the 50th Venice Biennale of contemporary art. A second exhibition L’île et elle, full of the autobiographical references that are also the focus of her films Les Plages d’Agnès (2008) and Varda, par Agnès (2019), was held at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in 2006.

Since the early 2000s her photographs, installations, and video work have been exhibited internationally. In 2017, she was the oldest person to receive an Academy Award nomination in a competitive category for her charming documentary film Visages, villages, a collaboration with photographer and street artist JR.

Agnès Varda was a remarkable artist who was able to bring us to see mundane objects, like the humble potato, as subjects of wonder and inquiry capable of leading us in unexpected directions.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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