Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre exposés au Silencio, Paris.

Polka Galerie in collaboration with Silencio Club, Paris will bring back ‘The Ruins of Detroit’, the celebrated collection of photography by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre.

The collection features photographs depicting the abandoned buildings reminiscent of past glory of Detroit following which the two young French photographers initiated their project being passionate about ruins. They met in 2002 and started collaborating. “During our visit to ruins, we always try to focus on remarkable buildings, whose architecture embodies the psychology of an age and a system, and we observe the metamorphosis of the process of decay” explain the artist duo. At the advent of the twentieth century the city of Detroit flourished with the establishment of the automobile Giant Ford Company and within a few years it became the automobile capital of the world and fourth largest city of the United States. In the 1950s, the factories were relocated to the outskirts of the city, the middle class population settled elsewhere and as a result of one of the most violent riots in 1960s, the population almost vanished. In downtown Detroit, the streets are lined with abandoned hotels and swimming pools, ruined movie houses and schools, all evidence of the motor city’s painful decline.

Marchand says: "Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our socities and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension."

Their work has been exhibited extensively throughout Europe and has been featured in the New York Times, The Guardian, the British Journal of Photography and Time Magazine amongst others. 

Between 2005 and 2009, the artists visited Detroit, the fallen city and captured images with a sense of loss.