“It is the story of surpassing. Of transfiguration. Through otherness.
These two read each other between the lines. Édouard Élias, photojournalist; Fanny Boucher, heliogravure artist.
Technical dialectics and sensitivities intertwine. Together, they create a complex root system branching into an arborescence of projects.
To mark the decade of the unnameable, they bring out the transitional object from Édouard’s captivity — a chess set — and transform it into an artwork. The outlet becomes ‘élévasion’.
It is the story of surpassing. Of transfiguration. Through art.”
During his months of captivity in Syria, held hostage by the Islamic State, Édouard Élias crafted a chess set in the darkness of his cell. Unable to glimpse the sky for nearly a year, this game became his only space of freedom. Spring arrives, and with it the swallows. This work retraces the collaboration between Édouard Élias and heliogravure artist Fanny Boucher around the chess set — a symbol of elevation and escape.
