A being, the body vaporous in the light and the face absorbed by the mineral expanse, Nausicaa of a new cosmic mythology; a being, face in the foreground but with diffuse features and closed eyes, fading into the luminous dust of the landscape that receives it, a new Therias with a celestial vision… If the images offered by photographer Smith seize us, it is because they evoke an infinite number of mythological déjà-vu, forgotten mystics, and imaginary cyborgs with millennial ramifications.
Desideration is the philosophical concept of a state of cosmic nostalgia. Forged by photographer Smith, writer Lucien Raphmaj, and physicist Jean-Philippe Uzan, the collective is joined by architecture studio Diplomates, and other creative members renewing each exhibition, each appearance. Since 2015, the project has taken on multiple forms, like a plural thought in continuous renewal. It was presented at the last Rencontres d’Arles, embodied in publication with Désidération (prologue), and will be visible until January at the Planches Contact festival in Deauville. Images are answered by words, and words by architecture, film, performance, sound creation, radio waves… By inserting itself into all these media, the work loses its uniqueness. It exists through these encounters and weaves a hybrid space, a space of echoes, like so many transitory bodies, composing the discourse of a revolutionary cosmic spirituality.
Désidération (prologue)
SMITH / Texte de Lucien Raphmaj
Éditions Textuel – 2021
Planches Contact
Festival de photographie de Deauville
Du 23 octobre 2021 au 2 janvier 2022
by Ana Bordenave
