Art

Arles: Terrains d
Raphaelle Stopin and Michel Mallard, curators of 'Terrains d'entente'

Arles: Terrains d'entente

Art

 

In the second instalment of our Arles series we're taking in an exhibition by a pair of Wallpaper* favourites, namely Michel Mallard and Raphaelle Stopin. Joint curators of the Hyeres Festival's photography selection, Mallard and Stopin put together 'Terrains d'entente' (On Common Ground) in response to a carte blanche invitation from the Fnac galleries, to be shown at Arles.

The exhibition brings together the work of ten very different photographers, each with a distinctly different approach to contemporary landscape photography loosely based around the single theme of nature versus culture. Despite the increasingly overwrought concept of humanity being totally incompatible with nature, 'Terrains d'entente' has a refreshingly positive prognosis: the 'common ground' of the title refers specifically to the imagined landscapes of the photographs, where man and nature can coexist harmoniously.

So Nico Krebs and Taiyo Onorato have transformed their landscapes with B-movie adjustments, Stefan Ruiz captures the trompe l'oeil effect of stage backdrops whilst Loan Nguyen adopts a childlike innocence in her visions of familiar scapes. As a whole, the exhibition effectively distances us from the usual plight of the destruction of our natural habitat and instead reclaims the subject with an altogether subtler message: as we develop at a rambunctious rate, the landscape around us remains, in comparison, at a relative constant.

Arles: Michel Mallard Click here to view our extensive gallery.

Next week: Camera Press

31 July 2007 | Art