At the Les Abords space, at the entrance to the Victor-Segalen faculty in Brest, the installation of your exhibition “Mapping the entropic territory” is astonishing. You have placed your photographs on the ground. For what ?
François Chemin: “In fact, each photograph is placed in space according to its GPS coordinates (global positioning system, Editor’s note). It’s not placed randomly and that’s why there are so many on the ground. I use the medium of cartography in an obvious way, not only on these works. I decided to show a map that only appears through photographic surveys. There is also a whole question around entropy.”
“We have a matter of defined energy, constantly expanding in the Universe. So the most common phenomenon is the specter of thermal death, the fall. That’s why ruins form and things don’t stay in a stable state.”
Among your photographs, we notice the omnipresence of trees, ruins, blockhouses…
“Bunkers are architectures that were designed to be indestructible. But after thirty years of unoccupancy, they fell into ruin. The world continues to expand all around. Concerning the megaliths, we keep the physical traces, but we have lost the sense of construction. It’s not just matter that disappears. Alongside these human constructions, there are venerable and remarkable trees, to which we must consecrate the status of individuals and rescue them from the doldrums. They are prodigious.”
Practical
Exhibition by François Chemin from January 16 to February 7, 2025, at the Les Abords space, at the entrance to the Victor-Segalen faculty, at 20, rue Duquesne in Brest. Usual opening hours of the space: Monday to Thursday, 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Friday 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.
