Honorable Mention
Nowhere - untitled 02
DESCRIPTION
Nowhere is above all an urban story. An underground story which lets emptiness settle gradually between men. These parkings become silent witnesses of this strange urbanity. They represent our privacy part and our inability to integrate the city. They are a transit place where lives cross and uncross. Nowhere is also a story of solitude. Our eye gets lost in this disturbing place. Emptiness appeals emptiness as an unvoiced and deep breath. At night, these underground places empty any human form. AUTHOR
While on a series of trips to discover the immensity of barren lands, Xavier Blondeau starts wondering about the place of the individual in his environment. Turning to photography is his way of giving substance to his questioning. In 2009, he picks up this photographic work revolving around the individual, which he carries out in addition to his day job as researcher-lecturer.Through his photographic series he is looking for increasingly intimate answers. His approach remains instinctual -although he has relented and now better structures his work- while leaning toward a highly pared down kind of aesthetics. He is driven by emotion only, and this is how he navigates between abstraction, where he explores intimacy, and a very graphic kind of representation, in order to anchor this fantasy in reality. His photographs always shroud the scene in uncertainty, thus encouraging viewers to come up with their own interpretation of the photographer’s response to his own questioning… Xavier Blondeau has been very active on the art scene since 2011 and he regularly exhibits his work. His innermost thoughts slowly ermerge with each new series of photographs.