In an era of instantaneous images in a never-ending flow, there are some artists who prefer patience, attention and detours. They aim their lens at that which is not so evident, seeking to capture a prying light, a passing breath or an emerging memory. For them, nature is neither setting nor subject — it is the partner in a dialogue of the senses.
It all starts with an apparition. Alone in the middle of a salt flat, a soft, fragile, white form seems to emerge as if from a dream. Elina is an ephemeral sculpture created by Guillaume Barth in the heart of Salar de Uyuni, in the highlands of Bolivia, and on display at the Donkey Stables. The work rises up from the silence and gives birth to a series of images combining infinite landscape, immaculate light and the symbolic density of a gesture.
In the south wing of the château and in a very different register, but with the same attention to the passage of time, Kim Boske overlays moments like memories in our mind. By combining timescales, the Dutch artist weaves an inner vision of the landscape, made up of echoes, shifts and instability. Here, nature becomes vibration more than representation. The photographs on display distil the sensory experience of a garden and invite viewers to engage in slow, almost meditative contemplation.
Continuing on through the château, Tamás Dezsö builds photography that suspends the reference points of our perception, so as to better interrogate the memory of form and fragility of the world. Through the Tout se met à flotter (Everything begins to float) series, he frames the plant world as close as possible. Stems, leaves and branches are organised in dense networks, indifferent to our gaze. It is no longer a garden that we’re contemplating, but a form of green thought, self-sufficient, resisting all efforts to tame it.
In the west wing of the château, Vincent Fournier unleashes his Flora Incognita, flowers from a possible future. Born out of an imagery augmented by modern technology, his hybrid creations raise questions as to the fate of the living world and photography’s capacity to generate new forms of fiction. Between speculative herbarium, botanical drawing and fashion portrait, these images disrupt established registers.
In the reception lounge and the Porcupine Room, Santeri Tuori presents images from his Sky series, which he started in 2010 on the island of Kökar in Finland’s Åland archipelago. This member of the Helsinki School composes images of the sky in successive strata, mixing colour with black-and-white.
Continuing on from these artists’ singular gazes, a space is dedicated this year to the Domain’s photography collection. It testifies to previous editions of Chaumont-Photo-sur-Loire, retracing poetic and sensory memories.
