THE CIRCLE
2021-2023
Thought as a poetic endeavour at trying to grasp the meaning of being here, in a place where people breathe and start a family, where they take root. It’s also a portrait of a place quite unusual in Marseille’s cityscape. A garden-city built in the 70s following Alvar Aalto’s architectural standards. A place where man and nature can supposedly cohabit in harmony.
A place where you can feel happy and safe, where you can hear birds chirp in the morning as you go to work at dawn, where you can walk in the sandy ground and broken rocks, one of the rare parts of the southern boroughs left that doesn’t look like the many gated communities populating this area of France’s second and most economically contrasted city.
In this setting, I’ve walked many solitary walks, trying to belong, seized by the beauty of silence in the continiuous riot of the city. Meeting people I would take a picture of in order to set landmarks, that act like backgrounds to a neverending personal quest.
EXHIBITION VIEWS
La Chambre, Strasbourg, 2024.
The Circle, 12 prints with handmade C-type prints by Diamantino Quintas (100x127 cm and 80x100 cm) and handmade prints by the artist (24x30cm), 2023-2024, exhbition views ©Christopher Barraja.
Picture from ‘The Circle’ featured in la Chambre leaflet, 2023-2024.
Le Lac Gelé gallery, Arles, 2023.
The Circle, diptych 40 x 60 cm and 10 picture album, Lac Gelé Gallery,exhbition views ©Christopher Barraja.