The PARIS-B gallery is delighted to welcome Arthur Hoffmann for his first solo exhibition Wastelands in the PB PROJECT space, from March 6 to April 19, 2025.
Through a series of striking photographs, the artist invites us to rediscover unexplored territories, both geographical and mnemonic, where past and present overlap and transform into abstract visions.
The exhibition Wastelands is rooted in a profound reflection on landscape, conceived not only as a physical territory but also as a mental and emotional space. Each image captures a “terrain” that is fragmented, a memory in pieces, where light becomes the main agent of this transformation.
Hoffmann recycles polarizing films, commonly found on television screens, which he uses as experimental filters in his photographs. This process, echoing the earliest photographic experiments, produces effects of chromatic aberrations, distortions, and transparency, all without the use ofdigital editing.
“Each work becomes a unique impression, an instant image that will never be reproduced.”
The photographs are presented on aluminum plates, polished by manual sanding, which alters and erodes the image. This gesture symbolizes the partial erasure of memories and the deformation of the past, serving as a metaphor for the process of memory, which is always in flux. Through this technique, Hoffmann reconnects with the original nature of photography – the act of capturing and transforming light – while reinventing this practice in a contemporary context.
“Like the early photographers who captured unknown landscapes, I strive to reveal abstract and organic visions of invisible territories.”
The exhibition also explores the concept of non-places, as defined by Michel de Certeau and Marc Augé. These non-placesrefer to spaces of transit, often perceived as empty or dehumanized, where individuals, despite their physical presence, cannot experience authentic social engagement. These territories, often neglected or abandoned, are redefined by Hoffmann as potential spaces, laden with fragments of history and memory.
Through this unprecedented series, the artist invites the viewer to enter these liminal zones—both familiar and uncertain—where traces of everyday life and intimate elements merge to create new meanings. In doing so, the artist shows that a non-place always holds the potential to reinvent itself into a true place, full of meaning and poetry.
Wastelands is an invitation to understand the materiality of the image, both fragile and immutable, and to redefine our perception of landscape. Through his poetic and sensory lens, Hoffmann reinterprets forgotten spaces, urging us to consider memory and imagination as dynamic elements, where chaos and order, erasure and rediscovery, coexist within the same creative tension.