ADRIEN BASSE-CATHALINAT

HORS LES MURS #1 «TRAVERSÉE SAUVAGE»

Divided between nature and industry, the town of Castelnau d’Estrétefonds has been undergoing profound changes for a decade, as has its population, which has become both rural and urban at the same time.

During this subjective landscape, sensations of wildlife remained omnipresent, as evidenced by the numerous animal sightings and traces that marked my journey, despite the proximity of industrial infrastructures and the inherent intense activity. Therefore, I decided, not to adopt human vision due to my condition as a photographer, but to observe the landscape changes from an animal position. This change of referential thus questions the spectator on the vision that the man can have of his territory, calling into question the very notion of identity and belonging. From the preserved areas of nature, the human traces left in its environment appear as many crossings of this landscape. I have sought out geometric shapes that are almost non-existent in the natural state, these shapes becoming the signature of the passage and human activity. For this photographic residency, I chose the polaroid medium using the emulsion transfer technique, going from a stage of destructuring of the image to a plastic reassembly of panoramas. The final rendering corresponds to this unstable feeling of the state of transition in which this territory is crossed, the use of black and white reinforcing the animal, wild and raw vision of the natural observer. 

The Résidence 1+2 Hors les murs #1 was created in partnership with “Le Capech a la Cote” association with the support of the Castelanu d’Estrétefond City Council and The Impossible Project.