Christophe Zambiasi’s first exhibition at the Culture & Attractiveness Center will already be one of the most noticed. The young Albigensian photographer lingers on disused places, fossils of an industry that reaches back to prehistory: red brick chimneys that will no longer smoke, cyclopean concrete beams destined to be bulldozed by developers or – for the moment, by graffiti artists in search of space – metal beams eaten away by rust, decrepit facades colonized by ivy, glass roofs targeted by slingshot aces… A deserted world of work, “a symphony of energy at a standstill”, according to the author’s beautiful formula.
The needle of the pressure gauges is forever frozen, the funereal gray and black take over this world of shadows, dust and squatters’ rubbish disperse in the air currents. In black and white or in color, Christophe Zambiasi tells the story of a world that is passing away, he distills a little music of nostalgia, undoubtedly declinist but also carrying this “poetry of ruins” dear to Ruskin. Fortunately, the graffiti artists are there: Colors Street brings out neon pinks, biting oranges and soft blue skies. The street is empty, the artists have replaced the workers, but with their peaceful bombs, they reject the inevitable.
