In his series on the utopian yet very real city of Brasilia, the photographer juxtaposes architecture and humanity. These images invite the viewer on a journey through space and time.
Fascinated by manifestations of the future, the artist explores its many facets, from space exploration to the metamorphoses of life, by way of architectural utopias. His vision of Brasilia is as striking as a dystopian novel. Emerging from nothing in the Brazilian desert, conceived in 1957 by urban planner Lucio Costa and built by architect Oscar Niemeyer, this dreamlike capital embodied the future of the 1960s before freezing in time. It is now a time machine, which served as an illusionistic backdrop for the photographer. Porthole-like windows, passageways resembling orbital station corridors, structures resting on stilts that make them look like flying saucers—one of them pushing the metaphor even further by encircling itself with a ring evoking Saturn—the space fantasy is omnipresent.
The sky, moreover, serves as a backdrop to these horizontal architectures, playing with solids and voids. With his aerial angles and perspectives that banish the concept of perspective, making us mistake ground for facade, Vincent Fournier defies the laws of physics in this city governed by the dogma of geometry, whose disembodied volumes border on abstraction. The slightest human presence creates a surreal effect, which he skillfully exploits to stage the spaces, using modernist lines as a theater for visual experimentation. In its diversity and movement, life contrasts with the rigor of the architecture, whose rational uniformity generates an impression of solitude. Yet, a certain captivating poetry emanates from the aesthetics of these vast structures. By losing their human scale, they have gained posterity. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, Brasilia has found a new dimension by being immortalized by Vincent Fournier, some of whose photographs have become part of the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and that of LVMH in Paris.
“ALTERNATE HISTORY – VINCENT FOURNIER” MUSEUM OF HUNTING AND NATURE
62, RUE DES ARCHIVES, PARIS 3RD – UNTIL SEPTEMBER 17
WWW.VINCENTFOURNIER.CO.UK
@VINCENT_FOURNIER_ARTIST
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