When I first saw this series of Corinne Vionnet I thought it was consisted by paintings. It was a big surprise when, checking more carefully, I found out that these incredible images are, in reality, photographs. This fact changed my whole perception of the work, bringing me ideas of how we can be affected by places. In this case, touristic places. Vionnet used the photographic technique to make us think, artistically.

Why are we fascinated by these sites? Is it because they are really enchanting or because we’ve been also massacred with the same pictures our entire lives? From TV to published advertising, passing now through all kinds of social networks -where we can upload our “experiences”. Interesting to notice that the snapshots are usually taken from the same point of view, from the same spot.

“I wondered if we were trying to reproduce the image that we already know. How much does the image […] influence our gaze? Are we trying to reproduce the image of an image?.“

What was before only a register of people´s trips was collected by Corinne and rearranged. She created montages layering hundreds and hundreds of these single pictures. She created a world of oneiric, ethereal and ephemeral monuments, from real and permanent ones.

People -or tourists, or we- are so transitory that they also disappear from the places, becoming ghost figures, brief and dreamy passengers of this new structure.

So are our memories only ours? Or do we have a collective memory that, each day more, we love to share?

Corinne Vionnet is a French/Swiss artist. More of her work on: www.corinnevionnet.com