Gouffres, (Chasm) 2011 - presentation

The "Cables" series explored the shores of the world's seas in search of clues to the presence of undersea cables. By documenting the arrival points, these images suggested a secret space: the long cable path over thousands of kilometres, laid randomly on the seabed. The series "Gouffres" is an answer, a support to this imagination.

A light cable crosses the spaces of natural and underground architecture, revealing and connecting them. There is no point of origin to light, it is linear, emitted by the cable which seems to have no beginning or end. In the absence of usual referents, the eye has difficulty grasping the scale of what it perceives without effort. We are immersed in a world without measure, temporal or spatial. No man has ever decided on his form. It is a primitive place, which escapes architectural design but paradoxically crosses contemporary concerns of biomorphic architecture.

A strange feeling emerges. The underground can be a source of wealth, through the precious minerals it contains. it can be the place of the refuge, the withdrawal, from the simple protection of the weather to the atomic shelter. But it is also, and perhaps most importantly, associated with archaic fears and curiosity. It is the place where we risk being swallowed up, physically and in our own fantasies. Out of sight, it fascinates. But in this mineral world, where all forms of animal and plant life seem excluded, the light emitted by the cable creates movement and animates the place at the same time as it seems to echo an absence.

With the kind permission and participation of François de la Varende (owner of the Arcy-sur-Cure caves).