Paris Paris Paris

Since 2005, Corinne Vionnet has been developing the Photo Opportunities series, a reflection on mass tourism and the exponential circulation of images in the digital age. Paris Paris Paris is an extension of the series that made her a household name. The Swiss artist transcends the raw material with which she works: standardised snapshots of hyper-frequented places that feed social networks. Through these images, Corinne Vionnet questions our collective imagination and our tourist behaviour.

After taking an interest in numerous tourist destinations around the world, the artist has concentrated on Paris, one of the most visited cities and therefore the most photographed. In addition to the Eiffel Tower, she found many other sites and monuments that feed an endless stream of images on the Web. Hence the name “Paris”, repeated three times, like an endless loop.

In this book project, the artist presents the works in the Paris Paris Paris series in a highly original way. She presents them with the help of two graphic counterpoints that offer several keys to her approach and her subject. Silhouettes pile up on the pages, and double printing on the same paper heightens the effect of chaos. The artist succeeds in taking us on a poetic stroll through Paris, while making the abundance and repetition of images palpable through her science of superimposition, generating an endless mimetic effect. We recognise every station on this itinerary, punctuated by monuments whose shapes are evanescent but instantly recognisable (Arc de Triomphe, Moulin-Rouge, Montmartre). We also skirt the banks of the Seine and pass through a number of gardens bathed in the same misty atmosphere. All these places seem strangely free of the tourists who usually populate them. Their silhouettes have dissolved in the accumulation of images needed to create each composition.