Chongqing, on the four shores of passing time – Photographs by Cyrus Cornut

For the^third consecutive year, the Orangerie du Jardin des Plantes is hosting an exhibition by artist Cyrus Cornut during the month of May in the "Parallèle" section of the Boutographies festival, a major photography event in Montpellier.

Photographer Cyrus Cornut, an architect by training, focuses his work primarily on the city, its aesthetics, its evolution, its traces, its voids, and the human behaviors it induces.
In 2006, his first series on Chinese cities was exhibited at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles under the artistic direction of Raymond Depardon. Since 2011, his research has also focused on the place of vegetation in the urban landscape. In 2017, he produced a series on the world's largest metropolis, Chongqing, China.

The municipality of Chongqing, in the People's Republic of China, has experienced one of the world's strongest demographic and economic growth rates, now reaching 34 million inhabitants.
Chongqing, the "Mountain City," crisscrossed by the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, struggles to break through the thick fog that covers it all year round.
Urban forms and infrastructure have sprung up, defying gravity, hugging the contours of its four steep banks carved out by its waterways. The speed of urbanization has overtaken the slow pace of fishermen, river erosion, and the powerful emergence of mountains.

Cyrus Cornut presents a striking work of visual contrasts, revealing his vision of humanity in relation to society and its environment.