VINCENT FOURNIER

Born in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. 1970. 
Lives and works in Brussels.

“Working on going into space was then my goal and I have thus entered l space organizations and launching sites all over the world – most space facilities inherited from the cold war.”

The “Space Project” series reects my fascination for Space exploration through an archive of the most signicant space complexes, facilities, and experiences from all over the world and all kind of organizations. The denition of Space according to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is the point where the atmosphere becomes too thin to support aeronauticaights: the Kármán Jurisdictional Line at the altitude of 100 kms. Below this boundary, space belongs to each country, beyond, it would be free space: the territory of the unknown elds, the kingdom of the extremes, where opposites live together and change our thinking. Such a perfect playground for imagination! I havrst been looking at space through all sorts of space observatories in Chile, the US or the North Pole. Those machines are like ears and eyes making the link between the two worlds, the seen and the unseen. Looking far beyond into space is also looking into time as most stars or sounds we can record are actually the remains of passed time… 
I understood that utopia may become close to dystopia. The experience of Biosphere 2, the world’s biggest self-sustaining replica of Earth’s ecosystems built in order to prepare future space colonization turned indeed into a magnicent failure.When I started this project in 2007, my vision was both ironic and nostalgic for this dream of a potential future that was federating our collective imagination. This project takes today a new echo with the development of a new kind of space exploration, led by the aerospace and robotics industries rather than the superpowers of yesteryears. The second act of my “Space Project” now comes with the dawn of private space exploration with the new race to the stars and the Lunar X-Prize, that I will document for the National Geographic magazine – the occasion to remind us that discoveries are largely driven by individuals with lots of personality and audacious ideas. Imagination is the key.

BIOGRAPHY
Vincent Fournier was born in 1970 in Ouagadougou and after Brittany, London and Bruxelles, he is currently living in Paris. After graduating with a sociology degree and a Masters in Visual Arts, he obtained a diploma from the National School of Photography in Arles in 1997. His photographic work is represented by various galleries in the world, and comes along since a few years with other techniques such as 3D printing, video or installations. Observe stars, travel in the space, build new worlds, make the alive or reprogram it, see beyond the visible… His work proposes a journey in some of the most representative utopias of the 20 and 21st centuries. In these imaginary archives, the memory works in both directions – or as says the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland : in the past but also in the future. A world in which we remember what did not arise yet – of what will happen tomorrow. Result of a long preparation and an attraction for opposite, his works are poetic and accurate, freely fed bary inspirations. Fascinated by the science, the technologies and their mysteries, his installations explore its ional and wonderful potential. Group and solo shows (since 2012)Mori Art Museum, The Universe and Art, Tokyo, 2016/2017 – Australian Center for Photography (ACP), Post Natural History, Sydney, 2017 – Vitra Museum, Robotics, in Weil am Rhein, 2016/17 – la Fondation EDF/Electra, Alive, Paris, 2014 – le Musée des Arts Décoratifs de la ville de Paris, Salon AD, 2014 – Espace Quai 1, Post Natural History, Vevey, 2014 – Centre 798 Art Zone/Thinking Hands, Space Project, Beijing, 2013 – le Centre d’Art Contemporain de Pontmain, La science à l’œuvre, 2013 – Z33 House for Contemporary Art, Space Odyssey 2.0, Hasselt, 2014 – Science Museum/Fabrica, The Man Machine, Moscow, 2013 – Le Centre de la Photographie de Genève, False Fake, 2013 – NAI/The Netherlands Architecture Institute, Post Natural History, Rotterdam, 2013 – Les Rencontres d’Arles, Space Projet & The Man Machine, 2012.

Photo: Courtesy of the artist

http://www.vincentfournier.co.uk/www/