ARID BREATH / SOUFFLE ARIDE

Feb 25, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Apr 21

25 FEBRUARY 2024 - 10 MARCH 2024

The Stall Art Gallery in Sultan Qaboos City in Al Qurm is hosting the photography exhibition “Arid Breath” by French photographer Laura Bonnefous, which includes 20 high-quality photographs of the Wilayat of Duqm in the Al Wusta Governorate.

The photographs in the exhibition come as part of the photographer’s personal inquiries, as these works are formed in basic elements, which are: exploring the spirit of the place and adding more questions to understand the Duqm region through its charming natural colors and its different geographical overlap. In an exclusive interview, photographer Laura Bonneff says: In my new project, "Dry Breath," I chose to explore and study a unique and captivating city in the Sultanate of Oman, the city of Duqm, as I enjoy living in the space between documentary and visual art, and my photographs always find their strength and uniqueness when they achieve a balance between the two. She adds: “Over the past several years, I have developed my artistic work to read places and their essence with the identification of their worlds, as they constitute the present worlds in whose true motivations we have always been immersed.”

She notes: “Duqm remains a captivating maritime city on the Arabian Sea, and its strategic location connecting different continents has led to rapid and far-reaching transformations. It has become a major global industrial center, and the region has witnessed a wide-ranging transformation. I hope to present an accurate vision of these dynamic landscapes in Duqm, and to move forward as our world continues to change before our eyes. Dealing with different themes through colors is a distinctive feature of my work, always leading me to deep exploration and understanding of the spaces I study.”

Photo exhibition giving visitors the opportunity to discover the beauty of the Duqm region through the eyes of non-Omani photography pioneers.

About book "Souffle aride"

by Laura Bonnefous

Exploring material, understanding surfaces, questioning and interpreting territory through its color, texture, and sensibility - this is the essence of my photographic work. Souffle aride is a study of a singular and captivating territory in the Sultanate of Oman, focusing in particular on the city of Duqm.

I see blue in dialogue with sand. There are desert and rocky areas shaped by the powerful natural tones of Omani earth, and in contrast, the blue that conveys both the lightness of the sky and the force of the sea, redefining the landscape.

Duqm was, until recently, a modest fishing town on the Arabian Sea before experiencing rapid expansion. This territory is currently undergoing major transformations. I aim to explore and revisit this unique temporality, these shifts in time and space. My research unfolds through material, textures, folds, details, and tones of these lunar landscapes, as well as the men and women who inhabit them. I juxtapose infinite spaces with the lines of faces, architecture with drapery, to create a series that is both fragile and powerful.

I seek to offer a sensitive vision of landscapes in motion - to step back and observe a world that is constantly transforming before our eyes. Approaching my subject through color - my defining signature - leads me to explore and understand these spaces.

The book includes an original text by Jokha Alharthi.

Through a visual approach that emphasizes both encountered and reconstructed spaces, photographer Laura Bonnefous offers a form of poetic realism. Inspired by the relationship between humans and contemporary landscapes, and fascinated by the transformations shaping our society, she deciphers and studies our mythologies to present a sensitive interpretation. Using elements drawn from reality, she recreates her own spaces - more personal and metaphorical. Both painterly and sculptural, her images engage in a new archaeology of contemporary codes through a form of abstraction.

Laura Bonnefous developed her practice - between image and volume - at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, and the Gobelins School.