Bastien Desfriches Doria – Scènes de Genre

Fields were paved, ways were asphalted, concrete was poured in every cavity, newly-built quarters emerged and nature disappeared — for good. Whereas in Germany, almost 50% of the ground is sealed, the land of the US is yet covered with buildings, streets, parking areas and industrial parks on 112,000 square kilometres. But soil sealing is constantly progressing and the cities are inexorably growing. The after-effects are various: Water can no longer drain off, the extinction of species is accelerated and man finds himself surrounded by a cruel and hostile environment. The promises of urban development — more jobs, a higher quality of life — have run dry. And the concrete begins to crumble, the paint flakes off the walls.

Bastien Desfriches Doria photographed people in these disenchanted settings. He calls his series "Scènes de Genre", referring to Dutch painting tradition which in the 17th century depicted everyday and persnoal life between cooking pots, henhouses and village "high streets". In this series the artist creates contemporary genre scenes: "colleen" stands on the desert parking area, "Virginia" lingers on a field in front of a newly-built quarter, "Jerry" stares at a traffic sign, "Deante" is walking in front of corn silos and "Jeff" is running down a desert highway. Plain billboards, symbol of capitalistic consumerism, are watching over them, with no other message as pure void.

In the "Scènes de Genre" series billboards appear paradoxically repopulated by road kill animals and dirt, as to illustrate how one's hypernatural insensitivity my tragically affect natural life every day. In most scenes stands a lonely character, facing up the allegoric gin of his/her own ethical absence. Each slowly drains a fistful of dirt away, in an attempt to vaguely reconnect to geological times, to an existentialist temporality that ticks them closer to dust every passing second.

Bastien Desfriches Doria's protagonists seem lost facing this urban disaster; melancholy and grief are their companions. No flowers, no animals nor insects or birds are there to disrupt this absolute agony. Who will hear Colleen and Co. calling for mercy? Only thee walls will return a lonely echo.

BASTIEN DESFRICHES DORIA is a native of Paris, France, where he used to live and work right before moving tyo America in 1999 to study Photography. In France, Bastien earned two degrees from the University of Rennes in Brittany, one in Philosophy in 1998 and the second one in Information & Communication Sciences in 2000. He then obtained two other degrees in Photography, a BA in 2003 and an MFA in 2006, both from the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Bastien presently teaches Photography and Digital Imaging at Governors State University in Chicago's south suburbs.

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