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Artworks:

Laurence Bonvin

As a One-Eyed Little Owl (Zurich Airport, Amsterdam, Istanbul), 2004
3 Lambda prints mounted on PVC
100.0 x 125.0 cm each
The three photographic prints belonging to the night-bird series As a One-Eyed Little Owl capture three public spaces in three European capitals, namely Zurich, Amsterdam and Istanbul. Illuminated by artificial lighting, an airplane access ramp, a basketball court and a road bridge imposingly occupy the foreground of the images. Reduced to small lights flashing in the distance, the background presents no singular features and becomes impossible to identify. Only the titles make it possible for the viewer to understand the implicit reference to familiar cities.

In this connection, Bertrand Bacqué has evoked the concept of “non-places”, conceived by French anthropologist Marc Augé and taken up by Gilles Deleuze. Often used in contemporary film, this notion is associated with the use of a close-up that “abstracts the object it captures from any spatiotemporal reference point”. Suspended in an interzone, this object is associated with “some place or other”, one that is unrecognisable and timeless. Laurence Bonvin often chooses to turn her attention to places that are “disconnected, empty, but also blocks of pure sensations, freed from all human activity”, places “of all possibilities ”. This extreme openness stimulates the viewer’s imagination and gives a remarkable expressive power to Bonvin’s photographs.
Laurence Bonvin, As a One-Eyed Little Owl (Zurich Airport), 2004
As a One-Eyed Little Owl (Amsterdam), 2003
As a One-Eyed Little Owl (Istanbul), 2003, 2004
Laurence Bonvin, As a One-Eyed Little Owl (Zurich Airport), 2004
As a One-Eyed Little Owl (Amsterdam), 2003
As a One-Eyed Little Owl (Istanbul), 2003, 2004
Laurence Bonvin, As a One-Eyed Little Owl (Zurich Airport), 2004
As a One-Eyed Little Owl (Amsterdam), 2003
As a One-Eyed Little Owl (Istanbul), 2003, 2004