French photographer Aurelien Villette travels the world, capturing the ruined architectural sites and thus demonstrating the continuity of time.
In 2016, he visited Abkhazia, a once-popular holiday destination of the Soviet elite (“Annie? You can’t imagine. I now fly in Gagra. With the very Yakin!”, — as boasted in the film “Ivan Vasilyevich changes occupation” Natalia Kostinski heroine), and now a zone of “frozen conflict”.
In November 1994 the Republic of Abkhazia declared independence from Georgia and since then there has been in the political arena of the world as a partially recognized state. The Georgian government, the UN and most countries of the world consider Abkhazia part of Georgia, four countries — UN members, including Russia, have recognized its independence.
The photographer says that the aim of his study was to show the consequences of a “hung” state in the region. Houses, roads, objects of cultural heritage are transformed into ruins.
All of Paris has created two series of pictures. The first presents the image of the dilapidated buildings of the Stalin era. According to the photographer, these images exist in the space between dream and reality. On the Abkhazian black sea resorts, he speaks as “the memory of the USSR” and “pieces of an ancient, glorious past and now are gone Riviera”. The second series — a kind of ode to the chaos. Here the audience moves quickly from the ruins of the bus stop to the new building, meaning independence from the Soviet building to an abandoned Georgian houses.
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