From October 10th, 2011
to January 14th, 2012
'Titouan Lamazou has, since 2001, paid several long visits to the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2011, he returned there to stay for a few months in the Great Lakes region. He is now exclusively presenting five of his latest photographs from this trip: Ténèbres au paradis (Darkness in paradise). His highly personal approach to photography borrows from traditional collage techniques: hundreds of images make up every work, thus creating mise-en-scènes in very large formats. In this way, his photographic tableaux are a meeting between the present instant and perpetuation.
Touched by the situation of women in North Kivu, the artist went to meet these Congolese whose lives waver between fear and courage in a troubled, forgotten zone where rape is among the violent acts perpetrated on a large scale as a war weapon. From the Upper Uélé to the banks of Lake Tanganyika, Titouan Lamazou tells the stories of survival and reconstruction of Florence, Mado, Jeanne, Suzanna and Rachel, portraying their individuality and transmitting their words.'
Adélie Genestar de Ipanema, Director of Polka Galerie
