Images-forêts
Léa Habourdin
Arranged in several parts, this work by Léa Habourdin documents the remaining old-growth forests of France and examines the relationship of humans to areas that have never been cleared or exploited. Habourdin presents a series of documentary photographs of these forests, printed with pigments that she extracts from plants that she gathered from around her studio and on her travels. To see all the nuances of her monochrome images in pastel tones, one has to stop and linger over them. Their sometimes ghostly transparency reminds us of the fragility of their subject and invites viewers to resonate with these places which we would like to imagine are untouched.
By showing forests that are now disappearing but without entirely revealing them, Léa Habourdin thematizes the representation of landscape and its impermanence. She is also presenting an installation consisting of images on fabric. The more intense dyes used for these forest images were produced from food residues (peelings, pits, leaves) collected by Habourdin. The locations represented are natural places that are cherished and familiar to the people who live there and shared among them like a secret.
Year of production: 2020-2023
