© Yann Gross
Horizonville
Introduction by Pascal Beausse
Exploring by moped, Yann Gross slows down time to develop an ethnographic study of a
group of people living out their dreams. Recreating a world of American culture in a Swiss
valley only makes sense if it entails inventing a new cultural identity that forges a bond
between people in that community. The social component of these practices goes way
beyond leisure to create a new model of everyday life. It is the construction of a collective
fantasy world in reality. As Slavoj Zizek puts it, “Welcome to the desert of the real!”
Here an artificial universe based on imaginary notions from film and television has been
adapted to the everyday reality of a part of Switzerland very far removed from the Rocky
Mountains of the Wild West, but also very far removed from any reality of life in America.
The different events and gatherings that cement the bonds between all these people who
gird themselves with symbols of the American Dream lend it the force of reality.
It is certainly less about recreating a piece of America in part of the Rhône Valley than
about creating a new culture, new practices and identities, fusing Swiss realities with the
imaginary American Way of Life à la Hollywood.
Yann Gross does not attempt to explain this singular sociocultural phenomenon, much less
judge or even mock it. He takes a highly empathetic, humanly intelligent approach. Like the
character in David Lynch’s film The Straight Story who travels across the vast spaces of
America by mini tractor, he slows the pace of his perception in exploring the valley by
moped, towing a trailer that allows him to camp wherever he sets up his tripod.
This patient and genuinely curious approach means that he is accepted by the people who
are the subject of his photographic investigation. The trust he elicits enables him to
develop several different complementary modes of representation, from posed portraits to
snapshots of the rites and festivals where the tribe assembles.
Landscape photographs revealing the architectural impact of this dissemination of the
American Dream along the roadside against the backdrop of the Alps reinforce the calm
strangeness of this mingling of two worlds.
Yann Gross’s story is about people at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In the wake
of globalization, thanks to contact facilitated by high-tech communication between far-flung
cultures, human communities are inventing new identities and practices that help create a
cheerful patchwork of creolization.
Enjoy the exhibition Horizonville by Yann Gross!
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