Photography and the Unease of the City: Three Exhibitions in Paris

The article reviews three photography exhibitions in Paris (2003–2004) that explore urban unease through different lenses. Zeus, an urban artist, conducts anti-advertising guerrilla actions, defacing posters with red paint and performing 'visual kidnappings' as a form of citizen resistance, echoing adbusters and alter-globalist movements. Gilbert Fastenaekens, associated with the Düsseldorf School, presents austere photographs of Belgian architecture, transforming brutalist blocks into sculptures and questioning how to inhabit a world of ugliness and disenchantment. Rémy Marlot's 'Out-of-the-Way' combines photography and video to capture non-lieux—peripheral zones, empty public gardens, and nocturnal cityscapes—using double exposures and a dialectic of grace and ugliness. His video 'Night 02:11' evokes childhood terrors and the threat of violence, while 'Around Home' references the Twin Towers collapse. The exhibitions were held at Galerie Patricia Dorfman (Zeus, with Raphaël Boccanfuso, Yan Toma, Baptiste Debombourg, Dec 5–Feb 28), Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire (Fastenaekens, Oct 23–Dec 20), and Espace d'art Yvonamor Palix (Marlot, Nov 14–Jan 24).