The suburban dream knows no boundaries and criss-crossing the residential neighbourhoods of Dubaï, in November or March under the sun ,is a kind of inspiring initiatory architectural journey.
You have to look hard to find these quiet desertic neighbourhoods, – on the edge of the desert – behind the flashy façade of the Dubaï of tourists and businessmen.
Nadd Al Hamar
Al Barsha
Al Warqa
Al Rashidya
Al Mizhar…
Areas at the end of the metro or bus lines spread out with intense fervour to the the gates of the desert emptiness or the Arabian peninsula, sometimes far away in the land, the opposite of the beachside dream that the tourists themselves seem to look for. Dubaï has always oscillated between a terrestrial identity, claimed by the ancient desert nomads, and a commercial maritime facet, turned outwards and onto the Gulf, a real melting pot of civilisation.
In a silent, stripped-down aesthetic, each villa individualised by a tight frontal frame, Sébastien Godret recounts the extraordinary architectural creativity, that reigns in these “residential areas”.
The close-up portraits, concentrating on each fold of the façade, accentuate the massive simplicity of their bulk, ranking the houses like so many minimalist sculptures out of the universe of Donald Judd. The buildings, carefully lit with an even light, researched at the price of a tireless amble in the neighbourhoods, are photographed in a neutral style, while isolated as an object, permitting precise formal and stylistic comparisons between them. The serial aesthetic is an echo of the stifling boredom that hangs over these housing estates.
The photographer is in search of a medium-sized house, of this poverty of suburban daily life, and, paradoxically, manages to show an originality at work, coming out of the battle of the inhabitants to affirm their individuality. These are identity photographs, that Sébastien Godret offers us, peering into the ledges, the balustrades, the pediments and the mouldings, like so many distinctive signs allowing the occupants of these villas to escape their hell of the banal.
Committed to the systematic approach of the series, Sébastien Godret retains, however, the pleasure of being surprised by a pleasing house, on the corner of a street, which shines in the velvet light, almost like a mirage, unreal and seductive; demanding the right to arbitrary choice, to the construction of a frame beyond pure documentary reportage. It is out of this that he actually constructs a solid artistic work.
BOOK
Dubaï Villas
Photographs by Sébastien Godret, texts by Brigitte Dumortier, Geographer, and Cyril Brulé, Architect
Silvana Editoriale
91 pages
20 €
www.sebastiengodret.com
www.silvanaeditoriale.it
