Performed in Inden, Gerzweiler and Humbach, Germany, the series of photographs, Balafres (opened wounds), show us the radical transformation process and, finally, the destruction of a land by excavating the mines of lignite which supply electric plants. Where formerly stood an organic life, which now remains only at the margins, the gigantic industrial installations give birth to a moon and desolated landscape made of sands and rocks. Alternately, various points of view put into relief the excavation’s depth like gaping wounds moulding new hills and valleys,emphasize the installation’s hugeness thanks to the game of scales, highlight the metamorphosis by focusing on the borders between two disparate worlds. The range of colors is so reduced and the layoutof the lines so geometrical that they draw a subjectless picture. The absence of a human figure inthe series stress on the paradoxical and disturbing power of the machine: in Balafres, the large scale of the photographs are both the sign of a human will and the agent of its erasure…

Le format panoramique de cette série de photographies met en exergue les blessures infligées à la Nature. Les cicatrices qui résultent de l’intervention de l’homme sur son environnement renvoient à la dimension anthropomorphique du paysage : ce dernier se transforme en une surface sensible qui enregistre les opérations qu’il subit. Les empreintes durables qui découlent des extractions réalisées dans ces mines allemandes à ciel ouvert engagent un rapport dialectique entre la beauté des strates colorées et la violence d’un acte irréversible. Ces balafres invitent à une expérience esthétique singulière mêlée de fascination et de répulsion.