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Attente

2004

Eric Baudelaire

Photography

110x141,4 cm

C-Print, Diasec

Eric Baudelaire has regrouped his works under the title of Imagined states. The photographer visited Abkhazia, formerly a part of Georgia which claimed its secession 10 years ago. Abkhazia obtained its independence by force and has since been awaiting its formal recognition by the international community. Some 10,000 people have died in the conflict, which has led to the ruin of this tourist destination of the former Soviet Union previously known as the "pearl of the Black Sea".
Eric Baudelaire has his own personal vision of the country and his work is not a photographic report or documentary. Nothing appears to have changed in 10 years. The buildings destroyed by bombing have not been rebuilt, construction has come to a complete standstill and devastated seaside resorts lie empty. Only the surrounding vegetation continues

to grow.
This interminable wait is reflected in Baudelaire's nostalgic works which depict an abandoned landscape.

Eric Baudelaire

France

Born in 1973

Born in Salt Lake City.
Lives and works in Paris.

Born in the US, Éric Baudelaire spent his childhood in France. On leaving school, he returned to America for twelve years. This travelling back and forth between two countries and two languages gave rise to his interest in the paradoxical question of identity. This has led to projects in which explicit references
to painting, sculpture, literature and film help him explore the concepts of territory, place and mental space
Eric Baudelaire's works appear in the collections of the Centre Pompidou and of the National Fund of Contemporary Art. He is a the prize-winner 2005 of the photographic competition of the Foundation HSBC for the photography, prize-winner 2003 of the Foundation Hachette and he is rewarded for the prize of New York Foundation for the Arts in 2002.