09 November, 2011

Between Loire and Océane : an exhibition on man looking down upon nature

"Entre Loire et Océane", an exhibition hosted by Le Quai Theatre from November 4th to December 18th, is an attempt to catch the profound, but unnoticed, changes of the Anjou landscapes along these two major ways of communication, one natural, part of the visual environment, the other, the Océane highway, also known under the reference A87, artificial part of the local geography. Curiously, the 13 twinned panels set up on two parallel tracks in the entrance hall of Le Quai don't reveal such changes because they are too abstractive.

No explanations, no titles, no indications about the places which have been photographed, prevent the visitors to cling to their visual memory and to realize the amplitude and, in some cases, the irreversibility of landscape changes and deteriorations. The author maybe sacrificed the learning power of his work to its artistic dimension.

That one is nevertheless real. Viewed from the sky, concrete surfaces of parking lots, where customers or employees run like ants, point out the material and intellectual imprisonment of individuals in contemporary world. But the most intriguing and perhaps the most worrying impression is, whether it be Loire river or A87, the results are the same : a shaping by man of his environment after an era of man dominated by nature.

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