Ambroise Tézenas has visited over a dozen major sites of dark tourism across the world – from Cambodia to Rwanda, Lebanon to Lithuania, Ukraine to the United States. These are sites developped for tourism and linked to death, assassination, incarceration, mass killing or tragedy. Yet dark tourism is not a new phenomenon and similar sites have attracted human interest for many years. From the gladiatorial combats of ancient Rome through attendance at public executions in London of the 1600s, it seems that death and disaster have maintained a lasting appeal.
Addressing the questions raised by this new reality, Ambroise Tézenas undertook a long investigation from the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre of 1944 to the ruins left by the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province, China, Ambroise Tézenas traveled through the 20th century by way of Cambodia, Rwanda, Ukraine, and Lebanon. ‘Here, we are gawking at a nightmare’, he sums up.
EXHIBITION
I was here, Dark tourism
Ambroise Tézenas
From July 6 to September 20th, 2015
Grande Halle
Parc des Ateliers
13200 Arles
France
http://www.rencontres-arles.com
