Vincent Catala — Île Brésil
Exhibition from 2 to 18 October 2025
Opening reception & signing
Wednesday, 1 October at 6:30 p.m.
Galerie VU’
60 Avenue de Saxe, Paris 15
Galerie VU’ is exhibiting part of the Île Brésil project to mark the publication of the book of the same name by Dunes.
Vincent Catala’s photographs do not conform to the stereotypes of joy, rhythm, exoticism, prosperity or poverty that surround Brazil. And that is where their strength lies. Île Brésil is the result of a long-term project. Over the past ten years, Vincent Catala has patiently examined the three main environments where he has put down roots: the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro (a suburb far removed from the images associated with the city), Greater São Paulo (the circular suburbs of Latin America’s largest city) and Brasília (a miniature capital and peripheral by definition).
By photographing the ‘infra-ordinary’ of a world that has become his own, he takes us to the anonymous margins of Brazil’s three main cities. Tirelessly explored, these territories, neither poor nor rich, immense and sparsely populated, are spaces that can be found everywhere in Brazil, although they are never shown. In these places without borders or centres, the feeling of isolation is not only geographical, but also subjective, mental. The metaphor of insularity seems omnipresent. One experiences a feeling of waiting, perhaps of fatality. Like a moment frozen before the imminence of an eruption.
—
—
