Once upon a time
“Un cò pèra” means “Once upon a time” in Occitan, a french regional language.
This is how the artist Leah Desmousseaux chose to title her new personal exhibition which presents a body of photographs taken in 2023 and 2024.
This project was built around two emblematic sites before our era : the Pterosaur Beach of Cayssac (paleontological site rich in fossil prints) and the Pech Merle cave in Cabrerets (National Prehistoric Center).
"My images reveal a dreamlike world" Leah Desmousseaux
Equipped with her camera, Leah Desmousseaux tracked down the slightest traces left on the paleontological site of Cayssac and on the walls of the Grotte du Pech Merle. Image hunter, it then reveals shapes and shadows which tell a new story. Here a Madonna, there a navel, here again the roundness of a breast, a stomach, or a small man…
Where presences appear
Imagined as a kind of giant Camera Obscura, the
Pech Merle cave becomes for the artist the field of taking
direct view. It illuminates the interior of the cavity using lighting that recalls how prehistoric men made shapes appear on the walls to paint animal and human figures. The presences appear...
A shamanic vision that Leah Desmousseaux adopts to also bring out figures.
Detail of “La riba, la Barca, la mair”
From the darkness emerges the image which, through its capacity to divert the visible and to give birth to immensity in the heart of the tiny, becomes a dreamlike hypothesis of a landscape before Humanity.
By illuminating the relief of the rock, the imprints left by creatures of the past, Leah Desmousseaux invokes the spirit of the place. Here the shadow of a child, a Madonna, a look from another time.
Détail of "Huèls", means "The Eyes" in Occitan language.
Velvety and sensuality
The velvety touch of Lith prints enhances the sensuality of Leah Desmousseaux's photographs thanks to the warmth of the shades and different grains obtained. This particular chemistry makes it possible to produce almost unique photographs, with effects “pepper” (scattered dots on the image) or patterns that cannot be reproduced identically.
Leah Desmousseaux, "Ombrilh 7", 2024. ©ADAGP, PARIS, 2024
Surrealist visions
Two photographs were taken in direct contact on the computer screen, based on scientific images of the Pech Merle cave produced by the GET Laboratory at the University of Toulouse (Fr). These exceptional prints offer a surreal vision of the mineral surface of the cave, a little-known and mysterious landscape.
Leah Desmousseaux, "Ors", 2024. ©ADAGP, PARIS, 2024.
