The recent photo works of Cedric Delsaux, the final installment of his Dark Lens trilogy dealing with the fact and fiction of modern urban space, can be viewed as an attempt to approach this enigmatic, emblematic city, using cinematic futurism as a tool to get a grasp on the present. Cedric describes the feeling he had as if walking around in a gigantic set for a science fiction film: "I instantly knew that all the characters from the Star Wars galaxies would be at home here." Seen through his Dark Lens, Dubai appears to be finally welcoming the guests it has been built for from the beginning.

Delsaux collapses the realm of fiction and the realm of the real onto a single image plane: film characters are inserted into photographs of existing locations that often appear less real than the iconic crew and vehicles of the Star Wars films, whose adventures we have witnessed with our own eyes on screens around the globe. What the artist aims for is not a photographic rendering of the raw reality of Paris, Lille, and now Dubai, but an exploration of the dream potential these cities hold within. He feels we are unable to truly see the world that surrounds us; we can only ever have a perception of it, filtered through the prism of our own culture, history, our sensitivity. Cedric explains: "Since I cannot convey reality, I'll show the perception, the fiction, I have of it." Simultaneously facetious game, dark joke and mise en abyme, Cedric Delsaux has developed what he calls "an aesthetic of the in-between", inextricably interweaving fantasy with real objects. This new world, accurate, swarming with objective details, is absolutely false, yet totally truthful in so far as it reveals the essentially retro-futuristic characteristic of modern urban spaces, which are simultaneously too early and far too late.

However tempting, the work of Delsaux ought not be reduced to a mere game of digital manipulations that tap into the visual language of commercial advertising and myth-making film history. Despite moving in the territory shared by both film and advertising, Cedric Delsaux's work remains firmly rooted in contemporary landscape photography. The starting point of his Star Wars trilogy was a project exploring the nature of urban architecture, called La Vitrine des Choses, set in the north of France. Cedric recounts: "I photographed ordinary places, warehouses, harbours and houses that I tried to render extraordinary by setting them in a particular frame and experimenting with lighting. I continued this project in the suburbs of Paris, but realized there was something missing, since the images no longer seemed that extraordinary. It was at this point that I decided to introduce sci-fi characters. Star Wars was a part of my childhood like many kids my age, but I wasn't a fan. It wasn't necessarily my chosen genre - nevertheless, the power of Star War films overtakes the sci-fi genre by a mile."

The insertion of sci-fi characters was to be the key to a hidden door of perception, transforming our quotidian surroundings into places where anything might happen. For instance, travelling around Dubai after seeing this exhibition will never be the same again. One day you may find yourself looking up at the sky, expecting to see speeder bikes chasing each other around the Burj Tower, only to realize you were fooled for a second by the sound of traffic around you. Rejoice and shiver, imagination has invaded everything.

BIO/Cédric Delslaux

Photographe de 36 ans, vit et travail à Paris. Après des études de lettres et de cinéma, il s’occupe d’une librairie de livres anciens dans le 9ème arrondissement. Il rejoint ensuite le monde de la publicité en tant que concepteur rédacteur pour des agences comme Young&Rubican ou CLM/BBDO dans laquelle il reste deux ans.

Rattrapé par ses vieux démons, il quitte tout à 28 ans pour se consacrer à la photographie. D’abord photographe de pub, il signe des campagnes pour de nombreuses marques comme Eurostar, EDF, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Orange, Sthil, etc...
Parallèlement il développe des séries personnelles qui lui ouvrent les portes des galeries et font l’objet de nombreuses expositions aux USA, en Chine, en Allemagne, en Angleterre, en Pologne, etc... Son dernier travail «Nous resterons sur terre» à été publié aux éditions Verlhac en Octobre 2008 et ressortira à l’automne 2010 pour le marché Américain aux éditions Random House. Deux autres livres sont également en préparation, le premier sur sa série autour de Star Wars «The Dark Lens» et le second sur sa série en costume «1784»

Cédric Delsaux est représenté par acte2galerie à Paris, Empty Quarter Gallery à Dubaï et Bonni Benrubi Gallery à New-York.
Florence Faisan Production le représente pour la publicité.