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ARCHEOLOGY OF THE PRESENT
The "Empire of Dust" series explores the social and aesthetic characteristics of a landscape modified by the presence of unfinished constructions: the ecomostri, those creatures of concrete erected in the hollow of a valley, or on the side of a hill. These indefinite forms, either ruins in the making or potential sculptures, draw the contours of a strange present, between dystopia and utopia, unreal, static, a fragment of history on which hovers in poetry the spectre of the end of a certain world.
By questioning the notion of territory to be built, domesticated or artistically redefined, Amélie Labourdette seeks to reveal the temporality and many-layered identity of a landscape.
For art critic and curator Theo-Mario Coppola, “The Empire of Dust series delivers traces of an archeology of the present.The artist does not fix them with a catalogue raisonné in the manner of Bernd and Hilla Becher, but rather chooses to build a set of sculptural forms. These architectural structures are also captured for their strength and physical presence, taken in a natural environment. They are the expression of an individual emotion, a relationship between the body and architecture, a journal of exploration.”
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Amelie Labourdette obtained her degree in Fine Art from the National Fine Art School of Nantes (Les Beaux-Arts). Recipient of numerous research and production grants, her work has been shown in several exhibitions in France and abroad (United Kingdom, China, Georgia, Italy, Germany), and is included in public or private collections. In 2016, Amelie won the Sony World Photography Awards in the category Architecture, with the photographic series Empire of Dust. Amelie Labourdette interrogates through her photographic work what is located below the visible landscape. The landscape is part of our collective and individual memory. By questioning the notion of territory, she tries to reveal the multi-layered identities and temporalities of a landscape.
She builds and realizes her photographic projects in a close relationship to the 'territory' concept. Her work can be defined as ''Archeology of the present'' revealed with aesthetic, fictional and documentary values.
9 rue Charlot, 75003 Paris, France
