The Lalla Hadria publishing company, based in Tunisia, inaugurates its new collection Art Photo with Nomad’s Land. This first book condenses a series of photographs by Yoann Crest, shot during summer on public beaches on the Tunisian coast. The photos can be seen in Tunis in Le32bis until January the 23rd 2016.
In Tunisia, next to resort hotels’ private beaches, local people settle on public beaches every summer, improvising an ephemeral habitat for the day, a micro architecture connected with nature. Wilderness camping, vernacular shelters or expression of the Bedouin tradition, these nomadic bubbles embedded in the sand show many solutions implemented to fully enjoy the pleasures of the beach.
The search for comfort is a constant in all human construction. Each of these bubbles is a spatial organization whose structural rules are dictated by the materials used (carpets, mats, “foutas”, umbrellas, wood …), arranged according to the abilities and choices of each. This results in a variety of settlements, a complex web of simple elements whose arrangement and orientation is determined by the sun, wind intensity, satisfaction of needs and activities.
Horizontality, verticality, angle, curvature, continuity, discontinuity, superposition, dissociation of constructed space … behind the apparent simplicity of form, the combination and juxtaposition of these elements are complex causal relations: economic, social and cultural data, determined by the architectural answer.
In an environment delivered to those who disfigure it, Tunisians spontaneously erect an architecture of happiness, soothing and poetic, contrasting with the hegemony of starred hotels, where luxury and comfort are often only promises of happiness. Formal expression of Tunisians’ mythical and spiritual relationship with their environment, this micro nomadic architecture has the virtue of showing us the opportunity to recreate on a human scale, a small paradise on earth.
Public Beaches
Wavering between sky and sea, on wide strips of white sand, the photographer’s eye lingers first on objects that look trivial, banal, a far cry from what could make headlines or claim the attention of the ordinary walker. However, the sightings randomly stumbled upon on Tunisian beaches eventually constitute an axis for artistic research, arousing curiosity and inviting, through the recurrence of the photographing device, to see it more closely, to perceive the similarity in the disparity: the nuance.
Tents in a state of complete misery, huts, drapes and sheer fabrics exposed to winds, arise in an almost empty space, facing a perpetually peaceful sea. The importance bestowed upon those expressions of temporary summer architectures reveals a sociological and aesthetical interest, through an approach that keeps the phenomenon of nomadism up to date, and that brings reminiscences of tribal culture back to light. From the start, sedentary life is frontally addressed, placing us at the heart of a key issue that goes back to the origins of the pastoral way of life, where the concept of “ephemeral” is the base for a fatalistic worldview.
Large enough to accommodate a family for a swim or a short stay at the seaside, these rudimentary camps are a reminder of seasonal movements during transhumance, although nowadays, motorcycles packs replace sheep and pickup trucks act as cargo.
Inspired by traditional tents, without looking like modern camping tents, these hybrid huts cannot fit into the consumer society’s logic which sometimes barges in, not without humor, like an exception that proves the rule. As an indicator of social mobility, the unusual presence of a vehicle impeccably hooded, representing the middle class’ ideals, clashing with the bareness of the popular tents that seem to escape modernity.
This minimalist scenery where the human is the great invisible, without being conspicuously absent, becomes the scene of a precariousness tied to the smallness of the human condition. Strongly suggested, the presence of holidaymakers is relegated to the background and most often overlooked, but not ignored.
Yoann Crest’s photographs are inhabited, they have a power of fascination that takes us from contemplation to meditation, through the desire for discovery. A strange feeling of zooming in imperceptibly drive us into the sleek setting, and captivates us with its frugality. We gradually enter into a mysterious world, a sort of ghostly and bright no man’s land where milky white agrees with a range of sea and sky pastel blue. We resolutely turn our backs on the spectacular chromatic contrast that freezes the image in a conventional beauty, and we embrace the description of a lifestyle beyond the exotic stereotype.
How to create a haunting atmosphere without falling into monotony? That is apparently the challenge that the photographer who takes the same picture by multiplying the surprise effect faces, with a sense of detail that constantly renews the viewer’s attention. A texture here, a stripe there and further, a tear or a streak … The design’s elements, simultaneously innocent and primitive, seek the viewer’s eyes, where the necessity for the most utilitarian practicality quite simply reinforces the rustic character.
The clearly anthropological approach stems from a documentary concern, not without poetry. Indeed, a spleen travels all the works connected, with the pervasiveness of a horizon that neatly defines space. The horizon, as a tangible and physical mark on the landscape, accentuates the spatial unit while shades indicate the time unit of a hieratic drama under a midday sun.
Photographed by far, the temporary housings best reveal the fragility of their rudimentary structure, on a bare and unalterable background. Here, the distance is insightful, conferring a monumental stature to these ephemeral sculptures, usually made of bits and pieces, scraps of fabrics, animal pelts, blankets, mats, tarpaulins and all that can be reconverted or recycled. This distance is synonymous with neutrality, modesty, respect but certainly not avoidance. Voyeurism is not an issue in this choice to remain outside, which gives the observers a status. An ethical relationship is powerfully watermarked in these images that have inevitably resulted in meetings, and that required permissions from the artisans of these makeshift shelters.
One of them, by identifying with his makeshift umbrella, accepts the help of the camera and is to be seen as an example of this segment of the population that is stationed on the beaches of southern Tunisia. Thus, the human is hollowly seized or portrayed through specific signs that underline the different categories of the working classes, and that thereby let us guess their nature. Each tent has its own soul, its distinctive feature, and if we do not know exactly its lifetime, we know it evokes promiscuity, sharing, conviviality made simple, pleasures and peaceful moments with family, or ascetic retreat.
Far from the usual tourist route, Yoann Cimier explores an unexpected facet of Tunisia’s most humble and most hedonistic, most festive and most sad, fragile but full of confidence . Tunisia introduce the photographer to a paradise without pretense.
Hichem Ben Ammar
BOOK
Yoann Cimier, Nomad’s Land
Publication Tunisia December 2015
16,5 x 23,5 cm
French-English
102 photographies
Lalla Hadria Editions
Public Price : 42 DT
http://www.lallahadriaeditions.com
