How fiction becomes reality


Since the late 90's, photographer and video maker Nicolas Descottes (born in 1968) has created a number of series of images where reality and fiction subly mingle. Whether they are from his first series (2000-2002) in which men seen from behind face the sea in Odessa, or Burns (2002) on the theme of burnt buildings or more recently in the night photos of a refinery near Rotterdam (2006) or a wine producing centre in the Medoc region (2007), reality seems truncated and inevitably calling for the imagination to complete it. The images of Nicolas Descottes suggest that indeed access to reality is limited and that recourse to fiction is necessary to understand it. The diverse explosions, lightings or fires and violent spraying metamorphosize the matter of the objects, giving them an almost pictorial aspect. Even if the photographs acknowledge the fact that these events have truly taken place, their number, their systematic character, their scope and the absence of consequences which emanate, all indicate that the events arise from a calculated fabrication, a materialization of the virtual.
Pursing this theme, Nicolas Descottes is currently concentrating on a more precise analysis of the semblance, the constructed and the used, in trial centers. In a second series of photographs started in 2007, taken throughout different centers in Europe (Reving and Skövde in Sweden, Woendrecht in Holland, Vernon in France), the question of the transformation of matter is moved to a secondary level.
This is to benefit of the observation of the scenery and props which enable the simulaitons to be carried out. A massive helicopter with opaque windows, an old train blocked by a van an occasional dummy placed here and there in vehicles or on the ground, are all photogrpahed in a more static manner. The images are more objective and stark than in the previous series. The objects appear to be waiting for action.
In these latest photogrpahs, the realism of the engines, counterbalanced by the roughness of certain intentionally neglected details, arouses a feeling which combines ludicrousness and terror and provokes suspicion - but is this about paranoia - ? as to the real vocation of the simulation. The objects indeed appear to be big toys waiting to imitate war. Series within the series, some photos present strangely damaged cars fixed in an almost playful posture. The construction of our own fiction.

Translated into English from an article written in French by Vanessa Morisset.

Nicolas Descottes
Born in 1968 in Rennes.
Lives and works in Paris.


Solo Shows

2013    Collision, www.le bleu du ciel.net
2010    Saint Louis / Rothschild, Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux
2008    Ofr, London
            Institut Français, Madrid
2007    Nicolas Descottes, Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux
            Arc en Rêve, centre d'architecture, Bordeaux
2006    3199 LM Maasvlakte, Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux
2005    Burns, Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux
2004    Collection Hiver for the stylist Vanessa Bruno, Paris
            Festival Itinéraires des Photographes Voyageurs, Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux
            Mois de la Photo, galerie Pierre Brullé, Paris
2003    Galerie Premier Regard, Paris
            Burns, Van Zoetendaal, Amsterdam
            Wall Project Central Railway Station, Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Amsterdam
            Burns, La Périphérie, Malakoff
2002    Sterilemind gallery, New-York
2001    La Galerne, Le Havre
            Festival du Réel, Centre Pompidou, Paris
2000    FNAC St Lazare gallery, Paris


Group Show
2014    Les Esthétiques d?un monde désenchanté, Centre d'art contemporain, Meymac
2013    Campagnes/ Campagne, Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux
            Quartier d?été de la collection Bernard Magrez, Dinard
2012   L'espace de l'autre, works of the collection of the artothèque de Pessac - Les arts au mur, Centre d'art et photographie, Lectoure
             My own private #2, The Snake, Cortex Athletico, Paris
2011     Premier Regard, 50 artistes, 10 ans, Bastille Design Center, Paris
2010    Imminences de la catastrophe, Espace Croix-Baragnon, Toulouse
            Somewhere over the rainbow, Frac Aquitaine, Bordeaux
2009    Assises 101 sedute in opera, Contemporary art museum, Maca Acri
            L?Art del mar, Fundació Forvm - Tarragona
2008    Mayoral Barcelone gallery, Barcelona
            Institut Français, Damas
            ArtBrussels, Cortex Athletico, Brussels
            Fotofestival, Leipzig
            FIAC, galerie Cortex Athletico
2007    945+11, Frac Collection Aquitaine, Bordeaux
            Liste 07, The young art fair, Cortex Athletico, Basel
2006    Liste 06, The young art fair, Cortex Athletico, Basel
            FIAC, Cortex Athletico, Paris
           Collection photographique de la caisse des dépôts et consignations, Les Peintres de la Vie Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris
           Syrjajeve pour Vanessa Bruno au Printemps Hausmann, Paris
2005    Hors Champs, vidéo, Théâtre du Champs de Bataille, Angers
            In Memory, CAPC - Musée d?art contemporain, Bordeaux
            Marks of Honour, Van Zoetendaal, Amsterdam
            Enjeux d?eau, Wattwiller
            Festival International du Cinéma Nouvelle Génération, Lyon
            Festival Novart, Bordeaux
            Centre culturel Français, Belgrade
2004    Aujourd'hui, c'est ravioli, galerie Cortex Athletico, Bordeaux
            Paris Photo art fair
2003    Image/Paysage, AFAA, Djakarta, Indonesia
            Horizon, Kunst en Cultuur Noord-Holland, Den Helder
            FIAC, Cortex Athletico, Paris
            Pensées Sauvages, Galerie du Petit Château, CAUE, Sceaux
2002    Biennale de la Photographie et des Arts Visuels, Liège
1999    CAES, Ris Orangis
1994    Eau Source de Vie, Jardin du Centre National de la Photographie, Paris
    

Press
2009   Le théâtre des opérations, C. Vergès & C. Broqua, Spirit n°65
           Médoc, murs ventriloques, Libération, Marie Lechner, 18/12/2009
           Esthétique de la cicatrices des lieux auxquels on ne peut accéder,   
           Florence Valérie Alonzo, Lacritique.org, 16/02/2009
2007   C. Vergès & C. Broqua, Spirit n°30
          Didier Arnaudet, artpress, n°336
2006   Real-life Drama, Vanessa Morisset, DAM, n°17
           Didier Arnaudet, artpress, n°323
           Vrais-fausses catastrophes, Dominique Godfrey, Sud-Ouest,
           30/03/2006
2005   Didier Arnaudet, artpress, n°314

Editions
2012    Collisions, collection cneai
2007    Série sans titre (Raffineries), booklet  
            Gants, editions Ramsay
2006    3199 LM MAASVLAKTE, booklet  
2004    Extrait (Burns-Échafaudages), booklet
2000    Mer d?Aral, Les bateaux qui pleurent, editions Hazan


Collections
Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, Centre Pompidou
Musée National de la Marine
FRAC Aquitaine
FRAC Alsace
Caisse d'Épargne
Artothèque de Pessac
Artothèque d'Hennebont
Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez