Matthieu Gafsou’s photo installation at La Grenette (Ferme-Asile), features
framed images of glaciers printed on wallpaper and covering entire walls. These never-before-seen photographs are part of a new series entitled Élégies. Gafsou will also use a drone to take video footage of Trient, a village heavily exposed to the effects of climate change that the photographer has visited frequently throughout his life. The film will feature shots of the Trient and Les Grands glaciers which, like the Ferpècle Glacier, is melting at an alarming rate. It will also include footage of the embankments installed to prevent rockfalls; clusters of uprooted trees; the extensive rehabilitation work on the mountain stream; and other notable features. “It’s a bit like a microcosm of the impact of climate change in Switzerland.”

Franco-Swiss photographer Matthieu Gafsou (b. 1981) lives and works in
Lausanne. After graduating with a master’s degree in philosophy, literature and cinema from the University of Lausanne, he studied photography at the School of Applied Arts in Vevey. Since 2006, he has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions and has published six books. In 2009, Gafsou received the HSBC Prize for Photography. In 2014, the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne hosted his solo show Only God Can Judge Me. In 2018, his exhibition H+ featured at Les Rencontres de la Photographie d’Arles. In 2022, his Vivants project went on display at the Musée d’art de Pully and at the Paris Photo fair, where he won the Maison Ruinart Prize.

This project was made possible thanks to the commitment of the Ferme-Asile.

Élégies, Matthieu Gafsou, La Grenette (Ferme-Asile), Sion, 2024 © Olivier Lovey