Sophie Zénon

FRANCE • BORN IN 1965

THE MEMORY OF STONES
Discovering sensitive rural heritage in Morbihan

Leave the major tourist attractions of Morbihan behind for a while, and set off on the back roads, venture into the Breton moors, follow the coastal paths and get lost in the remote hamlets. You’ll discover a host of hidden treasures built, sculpted and fashioned, sometimes in ancient times. They bear witness to the multitude of activities found here in bygone eras, but are also the seeds of a culture bequeathed to us by our ancestors. You’ll find a chapel with chiselled tympanums, further along a washhouse carved into a hollow, then a crumbling manor house or an imposing granite calvary. Carry on and you’ll come to a megalithic site with endless alignments, like those that astounded Stendhal, who described an ancient procession of stones basking in the atmosphere conjured up by the dark sea…

Over the course of a winter, from Locuan to Locmaria, from l’Île d’Arz to Guehenno, visual artist Sophie Zénon travelled the length and breadth of Morbihan, accompanied by Diego Mens, heritage curator at the département’s council, the initiator of this new photographic commission. So what marked her most? ‘This fusion of granite with the landscape, and with plants in particular. It gives off an atmosphere that is at times serene, at times melancholy, conducive to a form of introspection and meditation.”

This explains the unconventional approach used to capture the shots, as dictated by the artist. She is relentless in her quest to experiment with the photographic medium, which gives rise to organic, vibrant and poetic works. Here, she opted for a series of frontal shots and long shots. She used an old technique, the orotone, a photographic print on a silver gelatine glass plate to which she applied gold tone with a brush. The beholder is treated to a precious, delicate and fragile artefact, imbued with a timeless quality and adorned in shades of black and tan echoing the sacred monuments that hold such significance for the region’s inhabitants. In the green labyrinth at La Gacilly, the photographs, printed in large format on brushed aluminium, shimmer and play with light and shadow, creating a surprising effect of depth.

LABYRINTHE VÉGÉTAL

 

Photographic commission carried out with the support of the Morbihan departmental Council.


Thanks to Diego Mens, Heritage Curator for the Morbihan departmental Council.