Paradise City
Sébastien Cuvelier
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Paradise City is a personal search through both the contemporary and ancient landscapes of Iran to locate an elusive, dreamlike version of paradise. Sébastien Cuvelier’s journeys to Iran were inspired by a manuscript written on his late uncle’s journey to Persepolis 50 years ago.
The sheer concept of paradise is inherently Iranian. The word paradise comes from old Persian paridaida – meaning walled garden. It is therefore only natural that this word resonates in all corners of a country where history is full of nostalgia, people are deeply romantic and flowers are everywhere. The country’s young and connected population has had to constantly adjust its way of living since the 1979 revolution, in order to circumvent the limitations imposed by the Government. They seek paradise, but are unsure where to look.
Sébastien Cuvelier attempted to reflect this pursuit of paradise through metaphorical, fleeting and illusive images – each appearing like a piece of an intangible jigsaw combining what once was or could be, with the present. Paradise City shows glimpses of contemporary Iran through the eyes of the people he met – at times romanticised, nostalgic or even utopian.
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Sébastien Cuvelier was born in Arlon, Belgium, in 1975. He currently lives and works in Itzig, Luxembourg.
What does reality look like when it is photographed from its own perimeter, in the uncanny zone between certainty, objectivity and dreams, where an idealised version of the world has infiltrated? Sébastien Cuvelier’s photography may well provide the answer.
In his images, what is real always seems larger than it actually is. The photographs appear to have passed through a fantasy filter, to be projected from a dimension where other rules apply. The sensation is similar to the one felt in the twilight zone between wakefulness and sleep, when ambiguous landscapes are crossed in what is not quite a dream.
It is not unusual to feel a little uncomfortable when looking at his photographs. To have the sense that one is intruding on someone else’s secret, imaginary territory. Perhaps it’s because the people, places and objects are made unfamiliar by certain details, yet seem a part of daily life. A superficial mundanity, one filled with residential blocks, interiors decorated with ostentatious luxury, ordinary streets and gardens. And yet, our usual references are rendered obsolete.
The colours, the blurring, the inconsistencies: everything conspires to make us doubt that these photographs portray what really exists. Sébastien Cuvelier appears to have found the way to an observation room that provides a mysterious and disturbing view of the human desire to become a utopian incarnation of itself.
- Text by Philippe Marczewski (.TIFF)
Eunma Town
In the 1970s, as people from all over South Korea moved to Seoul, the 28 buildings of the newly erected Eunma Town apartment complex welcomed many families with dreams of a better life.
Less than 50 years later, South Korea is one of the richest countries in the world after an unprecedented economic miracle. Despite its decrepit walls, Eunma Town is still in the top 10 of the most expensive places to live in South Korea due to its sheer location, in the epicenter of South Korea’s thriving private education industry.
Eunma Town is a symbol of hope, where dreams of tomorrow triggered by today’s economic power mix with dreams of yesteryear still lingering in its deteriorating walls.