PHOTOGRAPHY
Essais photographique
with Matthieu Gafsou
The mere mention of the term animal already raises questions; the most general of all is the following: do we, as humans, belong to this kingdom, or have we become totally alien to it ? The aim here is not to answer such a question, but to understand that the divide between humans and non-humans is extremely strong in our society - the only one in human history that has forged such a boundary. Yet the animal is everywhere in our daily lives. There is the animal we eat, or refuse to eat, the one we domesticate, the one that lives in our - its? - environment, the one we hunt, the one we cage in zoos, the one we study, the one we protect, etc... There is now talk of the sixth mass extinction of biodiversity. This context, which is ours today, complicates our relationship with living beings and with animals in particular. We are forced to rethink our relationship with others and become aware that life is a complex network in which we do not have all the space. Moreover, recent scientific research has exploded the Cartesian theory of the animal-machine and demonstrated that we are not the only ones to have developed an interiority. During this year-long project, students were asked to produce a series that addresses one or more of the themes associated with the animal world, in the form of their choice but using reality as raw material.
