Artist's Statement |
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Homo Urbanus Europeanus |
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The series "Homo Urbanus Europeanus" is about man, in the city, in Europe.... let's say, about the European "urban being". I have captured urban landscapes in the same way that an archaeologist observes, searches, excavates and tries
to reconstruct some primitive spaces. I’ve tried to observe city dwellers and their surroundings the way a biologist studies inside a cell. Each image of the series "HUE", is a hymn to the great citizen. This figure, walking, stopping
and weaving through the city, often lonely but no less proud and determined, does not show any kind of alienation, but has the stature of a conqueror. Moreover, this human presence, this captured silhouette, always in the right
place at the right time, gives the city an unexpected beauty and majesty. The series "Homo Urbanus Europeanus" does not hide its political dimension. In fact, 43 European capitals have been photographed, each in the same style,
sober and without any cultural or social visibility, favoring similarity over difference, "Europeanity" over diversity. The series "HUE" clearly expresses a utopian but French "Yes to Europe". Below is the list of 42 photographed
capitals of Europe: Bratislava, Riga, Vilnius, Sofia, Madrid, Warsaw, Rome, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, Helsinki, Tallinn, Reykjavik, Paris, Brussels, Oslo, Stockholm, Prague, Berlin, Istanbul, Lisbon, Bucharest, Tirana, Budapest,
Vienna, Athens, Luxembourg, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London, Dublin, Sarajevo, Podgorica, Pristina, Skopje, Chisinau, Nicosia, Valletta, Minsk, Yerevan, Tbilisi, Kiev and Bern. Istanbul is the only city that is not a capital, but
is still considered the European capital of Turkey. The next and last capitals to be included in the series: Tórshavn, Vaduz and Moscow.
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