For over a decade, in the country of Gex, a man pretended to be something he wasn’t: a doctor and researcher with an international career. He went out every morning and wandered in the surrounding area, waiting for nightfall. For him, this territory constituted a vast fallback zone in which he was waiting, all alone, for the tragic end of his lies. The only way he could think of to liberate himself was to murder his whole family.
French photographer, Cédric Delsaux decided to follow the traces of the man from Gex, traveling the length and breadth of the region, focusing his attention solely on this malevolent spirit. For one week during every season over a three-year period, Cédric retraced the daily travels of this stranger, documenting the landscapes where he waited for years upon years.
Delsaux has been exploring increasingly tenuous borders between fiction and reality in his photography over the last 10 years. Initially being recognised for his work in advertising, his personal projects have received international acclaim.
Fascinated by the idea of his daily waiting, the artist researched the humdrum life of the man from Gex, trying to get a sense of his existence locked in a world of lies.
“During his trial, the psychiatric experts declared that he had an altered view of reality and that he was not entirely sane, nor entirely mad, but half-mad. They were forgetting that we all have an altered view of reality and that consequently, if we follow their logic, we are all half-mad.”
Cédric Delsaux’s Zone de Repli will be released in November, along with a book published by Éditions Xavier Barral (www.exb.fr).
Zone de Repli is also included within Delsaux’s work with the artist collective, “France(s), territoire liquide” a book of works by the collective will come out in October by Editions du Seuil, collection fiction&compagnie.
The publication of Zone de Repli will be launched in November at Paris Photo with a special book signing in the booth of Éditions Barral on Friday 14 November at 6pm.
Delsaux is known for his past works, “Nous Resterons sur Terre” [Here to Stay], “Dark Lens”, “1784” and most recently, “Echelle 1” [Life-size]. Whether he is talking about industrial immoderation, delusions of grandeur, or uncertain dreams; with each production Cédric Delsaux strives to elaborate the methods of our madness through his unique concepts that combine false reality and true fiction.
Cédric Delsaux is represented by East Wing in Doha/Dubai: http://www.east-wing.org
For more information visit Cédric Delsaux’s website at: http://www.cedricdelsaux.com
