Advertisement
What if, suddenly, Paris—the City of Light—were to go dark, erased from the map, emptied of its inhabitants, like the deserted megapolis of a fallen empire? Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, photographers of modern decrepitude, transpose this unsettling reality into our own. Galerie Fontana, having exhibited the artists’ series in its entirety – beginning with the “Ruins of Detriot” (2005 - 2010), presents the latest continuation, “Les Ruines de Paris.” The artists wander through the now-deserted streets of the French capital, subverting the iconography that defines its image. The terrifyingly powerful AI tool of synthesis and imitation enables the duo to delve into the twilight imagination whilst reflecting on the role of photography as an optical device. To bring this project to life, they generated over 52,000 images, averaging 650 attempts per finalised image. Their new works raise a pressing question: With human ingenuity challenged by the overwhelming rise of its own creation, is it now our material and physical human space that risks collapse? Are we witnessing our own obsolescence?
Advertisement
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Galerie Fontana Lauriergracht 142, 1016 RT Amsterdam, Netherlands, Lauriergracht 146, 1016 RT Amsterdam, Nederland,Amsterdam, Netherlands
