Alpes

With the series Alpes, Matthieu Gafsou reveals the complexity of the mountain torn as it is between different perceptions: untouched nature, romanticism heritage, and exploitation by the tourist industry. Since his series Espaces nomades Gafsou’s artistic preoccupations have been based on the connection between unspoilt nature and its domination by human beings. The taste of present day society for a return to authenticity has generated the development of a new type of tourism seeking remote and untouched destinations. However, this in itself threatens these regions and subjects them, in their turn, to becoming pure, commodity. Is not the mountain an excellent example of this paradox? Between art and documentation, sacred and profane, the images of the series Alpes confront near sublime panoramas with the tourist clichés and infrastructures which are their lot. Mountains give Gafsou the opportunity to pose philosophical questions about the human condition.

Noémie Richard