Olivier Valsecchi French, b. 1979

“BlackDust” is a three years long project reinvestigating the theme of Incarnation and life cycles, dear to Valsecchi. While highlighting the artist’s photographic mastery through near-to monochromatic images, Black Dust is the final chapter to Valsecchi’s “I am Dust” saga. While “Dust” illustrated the birth of the photographer’s cosmology, “Time of War” liberated these chaos-spawned creatures by infusing them with a soul and a purpose: a battle to fight. Replacing the primeval ash, this very element which has transiently crossed through the cycles of life and death, by black powder, Valsecchi crafted an innovative and powerful series. Stained by the epic tales’ darkness and violence, the bursting energy of his Ovidian heroes remains resilient until the final chapter.