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Vincent Fournier (France)
About the artist:
The work of Vincent Fournier is offering a journey in some of the most representative 20th century utopianism. From the first series, the «Tour operator» paradise and its domesticated nature to the Space odyssey in the «Space Project» images and more recently the «Underworld» project, his photographs are allegories for our dream of a science fiction utopia.
Witty and intriguing, the "Tour Operator" series is work based upon the book "Around the world in 80 days" from Jules Vernes. On extensive travels throughout the world, Vincent Fournier has used photography to document the effects of globalisation, the transformation of landscape and the social consequences on human living conditions.
From China to Canada, Scandinavia to South Africa, Europe to America, Fournier seeks out scenes of contradiction, focusing on the clash of modern/retro elements, and more intimately the quirks of human behaviour and cultural similarities /divisions. Many photographs offering a cultural critique of man’s role in nature. The contrasts between the natural and artificial, as well as the present and past, are expressed in his vibrantly coloured photographs. They are vast landscape compositions that stand raw nature ( the tour operator’s paradise) side by side with tame nature (with its often comical structures) and groups of people. The subject matter of his pictures ranges from landscapes and objects to people and the method is reminiscent of ethnologist Marc Augé’s accounts of his travels. Everything is precisely described in this series of large-format colour photographs where every image contains a suspended movement. The characters of Vincent Fournier’s images seem lost in a grandiose and deprecating non-space, planted where they stand, absent both from themselves and the world around them. They are features of a decor of which they are unaware. Like these message-less messengers, shot from a slight vertical angle in a harsh rocky landscape. This unsympathetic viewpoint is Icarian, capturing from a distance the vacuousness of leisure as a societal horizon.
The second body of work « Space project » is reflecting Vincent Fournier’s fascination for space age through an archive of the most significant space complexes from all over the world : The Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre of the Russian Federation, the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, the Guiana Space centre, the Atacama Desert Observatories in Chile among others From the global village to the space odyssey and more recently the underworld project, his photographs are allegories and criticism for our dream of a science fiction utopia.
Often science fiction describes another future world based upon the world we live in now. Looking at the photographs of the simulated Mars habitat (MDRS) built in a desolate and rocky desert of Utah gives us a feeling of a science fiction movie though all exist for real. It reminds us how the cosmonaut Buzz Aldrin described the lunar landscape in terms of its “magnificent desolation”. The ambivalence between fantasy and reality in Vincent Fournier’s photographs confronts the myth of space race with a sense of irony. It appears like a magnificent children's play provoking a diffusion between waking and dreaming. His ghostly, composed photographs--mysterious, space-suited men walking on a vast desert plain, a researcher quietly sitting in a blindingly white sterile environment, abandoned monitors blinking codes in a simulation room—have an otherworldly, unreal aesthetic. In these fascinating images, Fournier explores the paranoia and darkness of man’s attraction to the disconnect of space.
Humankind's fascination with space travel is a continuation of our collective desire to explore the unknown. Futuristic «other worlds» and modern utopias will continuously engage our imagination.
The third body of work «Underworld» in echo to « Journey to the Center of the World » is exploring the world underground. The project is starting with the Storm Sewer System in Tokyo (attached image )and will follow with The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.
Biography:
Born in Ouagadougou, Burkinafaso, 1970.
Grew up in Brittany, France. Studied in Montpellier and Arles.
Based in Brussels.
EDUCATION
Diploma of Visual Arts, Master of Sociology, Montpellier, 1994.
Diploma of l’Ecole Nationale de la Photographie, Arles, 1997.
EXHIBITIONS
Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, 1995.
Galerie Interface,Marseille, 1996.
Galerie I Love, Brussels, 2003.
Young Gallery, Brussels, 2005.
Acte 2 Galerie, Paris, 2005.
International Architecture Exhibition Lausanne, Switzerland, 2005.
Art Paris, Grand Palais, Mars 2006, Paris.
Abu Dhabi Art fair, UAE, 2007
Acte 2 Galerie, Paris, 2008
Festival Image’08, Vevey, Switzerland, 2008.
Marunouchy Gallery, Tokyo, 2008.
Tokyo Art Fair, April 2009.
Tokyo Photo, Tokyo, 2009.
Galeria 27AD, Bergamo, 2009.
Clic Gallery, New York, 2009.
BOOKS
“Tour Operator”, Initials Editions, Bruxelles, 2005.
“Space Project”, Verlhac Editions, Paris, 2008.
REPRESENTATIVE :
Paris : Acte 2 Galerie.
Tokyo : Marunouchy Gallery.
Bergamo (Milan) : Galeria 27 AD
London and Los Angeles : Step Gallery.
New York : Clic Gallery.
The work of Vincent Fournier is offering a journey in some of the most representative 20th century utopianism. From the first series, the «Tour operator» paradise and its domesticated nature to the Space odyssey in the «Space Project» images and more recently the «Underworld» project, his photographs are allegories for our dream of a science fiction utopia.
Witty and intriguing, the "Tour Operator" series is work based upon the book "Around the world in 80 days" from Jules Vernes. On extensive travels throughout the world, Vincent Fournier has used photography to document the effects of globalisation, the transformation of landscape and the social consequences on human living conditions.
From China to Canada, Scandinavia to South Africa, Europe to America, Fournier seeks out scenes of contradiction, focusing on the clash of modern/retro elements, and more intimately the quirks of human behaviour and cultural similarities /divisions. Many photographs offering a cultural critique of man’s role in nature. The contrasts between the natural and artificial, as well as the present and past, are expressed in his vibrantly coloured photographs. They are vast landscape compositions that stand raw nature ( the tour operator’s paradise) side by side with tame nature (with its often comical structures) and groups of people. The subject matter of his pictures ranges from landscapes and objects to people and the method is reminiscent of ethnologist Marc Augé’s accounts of his travels. Everything is precisely described in this series of large-format colour photographs where every image contains a suspended movement. The characters of Vincent Fournier’s images seem lost in a grandiose and deprecating non-space, planted where they stand, absent both from themselves and the world around them. They are features of a decor of which they are unaware. Like these message-less messengers, shot from a slight vertical angle in a harsh rocky landscape. This unsympathetic viewpoint is Icarian, capturing from a distance the vacuousness of leisure as a societal horizon.
The second body of work « Space project » is reflecting Vincent Fournier’s fascination for space age through an archive of the most significant space complexes from all over the world : The Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre of the Russian Federation, the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, the Guiana Space centre, the Atacama Desert Observatories in Chile among others From the global village to the space odyssey and more recently the underworld project, his photographs are allegories and criticism for our dream of a science fiction utopia.
Often science fiction describes another future world based upon the world we live in now. Looking at the photographs of the simulated Mars habitat (MDRS) built in a desolate and rocky desert of Utah gives us a feeling of a science fiction movie though all exist for real. It reminds us how the cosmonaut Buzz Aldrin described the lunar landscape in terms of its “magnificent desolation”. The ambivalence between fantasy and reality in Vincent Fournier’s photographs confronts the myth of space race with a sense of irony. It appears like a magnificent children's play provoking a diffusion between waking and dreaming. His ghostly, composed photographs--mysterious, space-suited men walking on a vast desert plain, a researcher quietly sitting in a blindingly white sterile environment, abandoned monitors blinking codes in a simulation room—have an otherworldly, unreal aesthetic. In these fascinating images, Fournier explores the paranoia and darkness of man’s attraction to the disconnect of space.
Humankind's fascination with space travel is a continuation of our collective desire to explore the unknown. Futuristic «other worlds» and modern utopias will continuously engage our imagination.
The third body of work «Underworld» in echo to « Journey to the Center of the World » is exploring the world underground. The project is starting with the Storm Sewer System in Tokyo (attached image )and will follow with The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.
Biography:
Born in Ouagadougou, Burkinafaso, 1970.
Grew up in Brittany, France. Studied in Montpellier and Arles.
Based in Brussels.
EDUCATION
Diploma of Visual Arts, Master of Sociology, Montpellier, 1994.
Diploma of l’Ecole Nationale de la Photographie, Arles, 1997.
EXHIBITIONS
Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, 1995.
Galerie Interface,Marseille, 1996.
Galerie I Love, Brussels, 2003.
Young Gallery, Brussels, 2005.
Acte 2 Galerie, Paris, 2005.
International Architecture Exhibition Lausanne, Switzerland, 2005.
Art Paris, Grand Palais, Mars 2006, Paris.
Abu Dhabi Art fair, UAE, 2007
Acte 2 Galerie, Paris, 2008
Festival Image’08, Vevey, Switzerland, 2008.
Marunouchy Gallery, Tokyo, 2008.
Tokyo Art Fair, April 2009.
Tokyo Photo, Tokyo, 2009.
Galeria 27AD, Bergamo, 2009.
Clic Gallery, New York, 2009.
BOOKS
“Tour Operator”, Initials Editions, Bruxelles, 2005.
“Space Project”, Verlhac Editions, Paris, 2008.
REPRESENTATIVE :
Paris : Acte 2 Galerie.
Tokyo : Marunouchy Gallery.
Bergamo (Milan) : Galeria 27 AD
London and Los Angeles : Step Gallery.
New York : Clic Gallery.
