This Mémoire deals with the position of artists towards science, specifically the “hard sciences” with a main focus on the photographic medium. I started from the postulate that in a society where science is omnipresent, positioning oneself in relation to scientific research becomes almost inevitable for artists. So I wanted to question this interaction between artists and science, to try to understand the stakes and issues, in order to guide my own practice. After establishing a brief history of that relationship, I attempt to classify different artists’ practices.
In August 2023, I had the privilege of coming along a mission of the University of Geneva as a photographer. The goal of the mission was to study a landslide inside the crater of the Askja volcano, which has been showing signs of intensified volcanic activity for several years. During this very immersive experience, I was able to document the progress of the research in the field, the gestures and the tools, but also question the relationship of these scientists to what they are studying, as well as my own positioning as an artist.
This book, whose title literally translates as “I am a photographer” in Japanese, retraces an organized trip in which I participated in 2024. I wanted to talk about the dual status of tourist/artist, and reflect on what the experience of tourism could reveal about a country, in this case Japan. It is an attempt to bear witness to reality indirectly, by documenting the varnish that covers it, and the places where it cracks.