When he sets foot on the Moon on July 21, 1969, astronaut Neil Armstrong utters a phrase that now belongs to the world heritage and remains fifty years later, as mythical as it is haunting for a whole generation of men and women.
«That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.» Neil Armstrong, 1969.
Vincent Fournier, an artist graduated in sociology and from the National School of Photography in Arles, took this invitation to dream and the challenges posed by this cosmic conquest. For the last ten years, he has been traveling the world searching for places, situations or meetings related to space exploration.
From Baikonur to Grenoble, via the United States, Asia, India, Russia or Norway, the artist travels the planet in order to confront new spaces and territories, like an endless quest to the pursuit of these imaginary worlds.
Photographer of the wonderful, but not the sensational, Vincent Fournier proceeds to the methodical exploration of these places almost virtual, as they seem elusive and distant. The vernacular architectures of the astronaut’s machine rooms or training halls thus depict a mechanical and robotic world, where cables and interconnected networks face natural or marvelous, desolate or vertiginous landscapes.
This exploration proves once again that the door to this otherwise idealized place remains for man a source of eternal wonder.
Fanny Robin, curator of the exhibition
Vincent Fournier: Space Utopia
from March 14 to May 18, 2019
–
Bullukian Foundation
26 Place Bellecour
69002 Lyon, France
