Q&A
Edouard Decam

What’s your background?
Although I studied and worked as an architect for years I always had this attraction for the landscape and especially for the mountains, the physical connection we have with those territories. Since 2016 I dedicate all my work to artistic research, trying to understand our relationship with nature and the construction of the landscape, through the prism of architecture and science.
What influences you artistically?
I am really concerned by the artists of the land art, mainly Robert Smithson. Works by Gordon Matta Clark, Anthony Mc Call, Dan Flavin, Raphael Zarka, are some other important influences, together with all the photographers of the Datar project in France during the 80′. Scientific research and most of all the spaces where it takes place are topics which highly informs my practice.
How do you start a new work?
My work – and life – depends on physical displacements, explorations and hikes. Most of the time I am attracted by a specific architecture – a dam up in the mountain, an astronomical observatory or a synchrotron -; the moment I discover those places my work starts to exist. The images I capture, both photographical or moving images, are built at this very moment, they arise themselves somehow: the sites and the movement create those images.
What are you working on right now?
After my first film, Volva, I am currently working in a new one – to be shot in 16mm as well – at La Palma Island (canary Islands). Images will create a dialogue between the crater of the local Volcano Cumbre Vieja, the astronomical observatory in place and the natural surrounding landscape of the island.