Super Specimens: Sensations of the Extraordinary
Spazio Nobile Gallery presents “Super Specimens: Sensations of the Extraordinary,” an exhibition of new work by photographer Vincent Fournier. This will be Fournier’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition is on view from April 28th through July 20th, 2023.
“Super Specimens: Sensations of the Extraordinary” features two recent bodies of work by Vincent Fournier: Auctus Animalis (2022) and Flora Incognita (2023). This will be the first dedicated gallery exhibition of photographs from Flora Incognita following its premiere with Spazio Nobile Gallery at PAD Paris in March 2023. The series gives us a glimpse into the possible and infinite transformations of a flower as it unfolds in all its majestic beauty. However, with Flora Incognita, Vincent Fournier, whose work often walks the blurry line between artifice and reality, has created imaginary projections of this flowering, in a fictionalised or unspecified time in our history, a concept which he refers to as uchronia. In this case, it is the flowers that live in this other universe or moment in time, pushing the observer to enter into a new imaginary world themselves, outside of traditional science and plant biology.
With Auctus Animalis, Fournier puts into perspective the metamorphoses of living beings and the evolution of species through the concept of an augmented animal. The work is a poetic questioning and it connects to his idea of uchronia, which is also the title of a concurrent exhibition of Fournier’s work now on view at the Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris. The beasts that appear in Actus Animalis are at once ethereal and beautiful while also being frightening, leaving a feeling of discomfort; A golden crocodile, a feathered elephant or phosphorescent whale, sit at the crossroads of speculative biology and surrealism in a fascinating way. Fournier collaborated with music composer Sébastien Gaxie on Actus Animalis, a project for which they were awarded the Swiss Life Award in 2022.
Whether it’s a series about space exploration (Space Utopia) or of Brutalist architecture from the cold-war USSR (Kosmic Memories), Fournier has an eye for seeing the mystery and fantasy that exist within these realms, creating a type of mystical universe in his photographs that most of do not consider when we observe the world around us.
“Super Specimens: Sensations of the Extraordinary,” will be on view at Spazio Nobile Gallery from April 28-July 20, 2023.
“Uchronie” is on view at the Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris through September 17, 2023.
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