The romanticism of Fabio Déronzier’s ocean paintings is offset by a more telluric theatricality in his photographs, where nudes coated in soil appear to emerge, uprooted, from under the Earth’s crust.
This kind of nude cannot fail to move: either their presence becomes unbearable or there is an odd sense of communion with the Earth. The photographer creates a very special atmosphere around these characters, isolated in their fear. Against the brightness of the background, the artist “forces” the body to show itself, but there is no exhibitionism. The fleeting moment captured hints at some mysterious and fascinating “explanations”. There is some kind of reality but it also reveals a form of fiction – or even science fiction.
The artist takes us to his own Desert of Death, a place that is more allegorical that it is geographical. Life can be felt there in the deep throbs, the boundaries, the outer limits, on the thresholds. Fabio Déronzier uses photography to explore the ever-changing nature of beings and of the world. Too many artists confuse these notions with nothingness and keep them at a distance. Déronzier refuses to do so, turning photography into an austere ceremonial that is violent, erotic and poetic at the same time: a source of sensual mysticism.
Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret/Translated from French by Clair Pickworth
Fabio Déronzier, Photographs
Galerie French Arts Factory
19, rue de l’Angevinière
75006 Paris
