Terra Nullius/Nobody’s Land: Excavation from Image 3.0
Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa
PHILIPPE DURAND
Gour de Tazenat, 2020-2021
This photographic series taken at the Gour de Tazenat, an ancient circular volcanic lake in France that was active in earlier ages and filled with rainwater after the cessation of volcanic activity, is a meditation on the forces of nature, their interwoven energies and relationships. Partnering with the Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company Ricoh, the artist used a new 2.5D photographic printing process to create unique effects, focusing on a mix of traditional and experimental approaches to colour printing in bas-relief. He describes this work as a meld of organic elements, “the mercury water of the Gour, the air divined by a peaceful sky, the islets of rocks, fixed on the film by the ardent fire of the Sun”, meshing into a composite image, its details accentuated through the play of textures and scales.