«Spaces without texture, without accents, an enormous loss of knowledge, dereliction and, without doubt, since the scope of this kind of space is universal, the biggest civilisational failure of our time: such is the landscape of the ZUS or of what resembles them, which everyone thinks they know, and yet which remains on the margins, left to its own devices.»
Jean-Christophe Bailly
In Benoît Fougeirol’s photographs, in the midst of the abandonment, something imposes itself, becomes alive, despite the emptiness... “Landscapes of ruins, or ruins of landscape” to borrow Jean-Paul Robert’s poetic term, Benoit Fougeirol’s photographic works raise the question of the boundaries between architecture and nature, civilization and abandonment, myth and reality. Desolate, abandoned architectures, yet with a vibrant presence. A lot of wild vegetation too, thriving and exploding everywhere, freely. Without the slightest theatricality, and with great sobriety and mastery, Benoît Fougeirol lets us glimpse the possibility of a new living order of things, even, and perhaps especially, of the most forgotten things.