Denis Bourges

1966, France

Co-founder of the photographic collective Tendance Floue. His constant journeys have taken him to Mauritania and India and from there to rural Brittany, creating images that play with the contrasts between various social groups, like in Entre Deux Mondes, a body of work he has been pursuing since 2002. His works have been seen in group exhibitions at Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; Les Frigos, Paris; and Maison des Arts de Créteil, all of them in France.

"Crossroads between two worlds, Victoria Station in Mumbai. People in the same country, in the same town, of the same generation even, living together in the same place only in parallel worlds… this is the paradox of a world where modernity and tradition go hand in hand. That is what makes a culture so immensely rich. After my work at Mont Saint-Michel, I went on with the same series of photographs in Mumbai, one of India’s most exciting cities. I chose to focus on fragmented moments and parallel lives in Mumbai, a huge city where modernity and ancestral traditions coexist, with the intent of putting these two worlds into perspective. Mumbai: Victoria Station at a crossing between tradition and modernity. Bombay (Mumbai, metropolis that counts 14 million people) stands as the very centre of contemporary India. I decided the train station would be the best meeting place for people from completely different walks of life, a unique place at the crossroads of so many worlds, one that truly encompasses the whole spectrum of Indian diversity. The people that pass each other, hurry and mix day by day, in and out of trains, on platforms, are the representatives of a multi-faceted India. Modern India is made up of these millions of migrant workers from rural areas that make their way alongside a fluctuating army of dynamic executives, students and artists. Based on this city, where tradition and modernity are firmly established, the aim of my project is to put these worlds, which sometimes bring opposite and paradoxical realities together, into full perspective. I feel strongly about exchanges and the chemistry between people, so I am curious to discover these worlds that seem at odds with each other but that are nonetheless woven together at a junction. I wanted these photographs to draw a link between these worlds by raising questions about their differences." DENIS BOURGES

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