BONNIN Julien

Relics

France

2018Godmother Artist

In a city that bears the scars of its land’s and memory’s ruins, the inner journey of this studio photographer is revealed through his approach of portraits. Relics refers to a possible encounter and the impossible dialogue with a collection of images preserved in a mythical location in Beirut, Lebanon. The setting and faces are frozen in time: telling a story caught between an unerasable past and a burning impulse towards the future. The discourse is expressed through dioramas, reconstitutions conceived like geographic and chronological interruptions: imitating reality to call out to the spectator. The artist manipulates ideas of kitsch and exoticism to recall the nostalgia and aesthetics associated with those types of landscapes, thus the postcard-like vision confronts with the common depiction of the Middle East.

About the artist

Julien Bonnin was born in France in 1983. He lives and works in France and in Lebanon. He worked asa photojournalist with an NGO that strives for Palestinian territories.He then entered the photography department at the Royal College of Arts in London. He combines documentary images with photographic installations and videos.