‘Syrie’
André Mérian
Images en Manoeuvres Editions
French
Hardcover
48 pages
260 x 260 mm
2010
ISBN 9782849951514
Syria, a work in which places that are never motives or pretexts, but exist nevertheless in the only tension updated by the practice of the artist; tension between these places of nature and their irremediable transformation, tension also between the built space becoming improbable spaces of use. From this dialectic arises no discourse, no criticism, no denunciation, because the images in the evidence of the plastic fact impose the neutral on the surface by referring to others the construction of the discourse. This neutrality is no longer only that of unknown places presented in an undifferentiated way, it becomes especially that of the photographer who in the repetition of images dislocates the very idea of the document.
About the Artist
Fifteen years André Mérian has devoted himself to exploring suburban landscapes in France and abroad. The photographic work of Mérian shows an interest in the built environment we experience within our everyday lives. Mérian’s images show peripheral areas, shopping centers, often chaotic architectural spaces humans construct and inhabit, the image look at the banal, everyday decor of these constructed landscapes. Past the border towns, the architecture takes on a new dimension, where the dummy, the temporary and renovations take over. The results are often confusing and ask questions about the fate of man in the aesthetics of chaos, putting the viewer on the edge of objectivity and subjectivity.
About the Publisher
Images en Manoeuvres Editions is a book publisher based in Marseille, France.
