L'île aux libellules
2016 - 2018
HyBrazil is a phantom island, appearing in different locations on nautical charts as early as 1325. Many stories exist of encounters with the island. According to the legend, it is a cradle of an advanced society that has remained hidden until our days, veiled as it is by thick fog, which has kept it from being discovered. In 1850, the island disappears from every maps completely.
I went searching for this mysterious island and found it. These pictures come from the Island of Dragonflies (Akitsu Shima), the name of which echoes nature’s powerful place in the Japanese imagination. On this island, humans seem to have suddenly disappeared. What remains are some sorts of ruins, lost in the middle of abundant nature which seems to retake its rights. Have these sites been definitely abandoned or just isolated from the rest of humanity?
“Julien Mauve, through the power of his photography, transports these mineral and industrial traces into a science-fiction future. The Island of Dragonflies, which we explore in his footsteps, acts as a warning about the environmental threat that is looming over us. He plunges us into an environment in which human presence has become unnatural. Through his paintings without skies, he escapes the satellites that draw up our world, observe us continuously and aspire to strip life of its mystery.”