On the way to Nice, in a brand-new British-registered Land Rover with two royal poodles in the back, M explains how he set up his luxury travel business, taking cars and dogs back to their owners. The yachts are getting ready at Cap d’Antibes, it’s the beginning of spring. On Wednesday evenings, I take Scottish dance classes at the International School in Mougins. I often sit on the sofas in the West End, watching the hotel staff come and go. I read Ser- vir les riches over my continental breakfast. I drive aimlessly to listen to investor commercials on Radio Riviera. I go for a drink in a five-star hotel in Monaco, and, in the end, I get used to it. For me, who grew up in the South-West, all this has a touch of the exotic and fascinates me. And, without bringing any truth to the matter, here are the fragments of my impressions during these two months on the French Riviera.
The latter is the preferred destination for a specific type of tourism, influenced by the Anglo-Saxon culture brought by the community that settled here. Luxury, excellence, comfort, quality, prestige and internationalism are terms used in luxury tourism and specifically sought after by a clientele specific to this region. Through a fictional documentary, I build a narrative around these key words, particularly in the four-star West End hotel on the Promenade des Anglais.
Through self-portraits and stagings based on observations, the collection of imagery and the construction of characters, the interior of the hotel becomes the stage for this narrative.
This exhibition proposal includes both framed prints and a number of photographs presented in a diverted manner, deliberately reduced to a purely ornamental function. A series of wall plates is inspired by talking plates – caricatures of morals in the form of a series telling a story – whose new printing techniques were imported from England in the 19th century. Six plates of the same action are displayed on the wall, accompanying the prints. A pho- tograph printed on a silk scarf is also displayed in the space.