United Land | François Ronsiaux

United Land François Ronsiaux

Since 2011 Francois Ronsiaux has developed a selection of photographs representing a number of possible scenarios and circumstances that may lead to the disappearance of the buildings and structures around us. Ronsiaux’s “united land” depends on the idea of a pole reversal; this is where an enormous movement in the ocean’s currents would cause water to rise at a rapid and solid pace. This movement, according to the French artist, will eventually evoke the drowning of all buildings and will leave humans with nothing but an underwater world.

Living in the 21st century, life has definitely taken new meanings and horizons. Ronsiaux emphasizes the danger of man’s constant drive to “control his living environment.” He suggests that careless human actions could lead to a “temporary existence as well as the potentiality that life on earth could end progressively or even abruptly.”

The French artist’s photographs spread knowledge about the state of delicacy and fragility that the physical world is experiencing. Ronsiaux’s vision allows us to experience a different world than the one we live in today; he visualizes a world where ice thaw takes over, leading to an extreme rising in ocean levels leaving the most advanced and famous landmarks under deep, icy, and cold sea.

Paris, Times Square, and many more different architectural structures are displayed as ghostly underwater spaces. The once beautiful places are barely recognizable in the photographs; although some skyscrapers or towers might be vaguely identified from their peaks, the rest are lost in Ronsiaux’s sunken city.

The structural characteristics of buildings are hardly showing from the dramatic rise in water levels. This visualization of tomorrow’s world, the ‘United Land’, will be presented at Galerie Olivier Waltman, Paris until February 22, 2015.

By:Ala’ Abuhasan