Fasion 2112, the Future of Beautiful
“In this series of pictures, I try, in a fantastic, optimistic and naïve way, to combine useful and futile. For what will we do tomorrow if there is no longer any way to discard? And beauty, can it only exist if it has lived ?” comments Omar-Victor Diop about his work.
“Fashion 2112, the future of beautiful” is this year’s selection by Afrique in Visu (named AIV) for Arles. For the third time, this participative platform of exchanges on photography in Africa has a choice location in the place Patrat of the Roquette district. From Tuesday July 3 through Saturday July 7, the festival “Quartier d’Afrique” with free concerts and Senegalese dinners in the evenings on the site of the exhibition.
“After Baudoin Mouanda whose work was more geared to the reportage, we wanted to show the particular work of this fashion photographer”. Jeanne appreciates the work of Omar- Victor “in two years, he took off in fashion photography entirely on his own, making the costumes, the casting, the shoots. He works in natural light, everything he does is self-taught.” Beyond Arles, Jeanne insists that “This exhibition carries on the Rencontres de Bamako where we presented a portion of his work. I like his approach, and the fact that Omar-Victor transforms the aesthetics of fashion photography to raise questions about recycling and pollution in Africa.”
You can meet the photographer Omar-Victor Diop and the two exhibition curators, Jeanne Mercier and Baptiste de Ville d’Avray at the exhibition opening on Tuesday, July 3, at 7:30pm.
You can read the full text by Wilfrid Estève in the French version of La Lettre.
