Elsa Leydier1988年出生於法國，目前則在法國里昂與巴西里約熱內盧兩地來回工作與生活。2013至2014年，她於隱匿在亞馬遜叢林與安地斯山脈交融處、一個遠離當代玻利維亞社會的非裔玻利維亞村莊Tocaña，創作系列攝影作品「Alirandu*」。結合了當地人所拍攝之照片、曾因被奴役而來到美洲大陸的祖先所留傳之圖片、與藝術家作為外來者所紀錄的攝影作品，創造三種觀看當地的視角，試圖藉不同層次展現人的認同與主體性，可以如何游離與變動。2014年Leydier創作作品 「完售」，利用巴西郵局所發行的、造成熱銷的世界盃郵票進行拼貼。她關注居住在名為老印地安博物館區的原住民社群，因地點即位於舉行賽事的體育館附近，如何因巴西世界盃的相關建設，在抗爭無效後遭到驅趕；今年她則創作了作品「里約灣之彩」，將巴西當地常被用來染布的植物——木藍（Indigo）之染料，塗抹於紀錄瓜納巴拉灣景色的負片上。由於木藍可解汞毒，瓜納巴拉灣的自然生態與水源又正在遭受嚴重的重金屬污染，Leydier透過譬喻性的淨化動作，重新檢視舉辦2016奧運水上運動競賽的瓜納巴拉灣，這個最常被用來表現里約熱內盧理想形象的重要地標；從Leydier的攝影作品中，可見她對那些被用來為地點與人物下定義的影像提出質問，嘗試著去揭發影像所包含的弱點與矛盾。
 

Elsa Leydier was born in France, 1988.  Now lives and works between Lyon (France) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). In her photographic work, she aims to interrogate images that are used to define places or people and tries to reveal the weakness and paradoxes carried by the images.

From 2013to 2014, she finished a series of photography called “Alirandu*”. It was shot in a very special place where the Amazon forest merges with the Andes mountains. She spent a few weeks in Tocaña, a small Afro-bolivian village, absent from contemporary Bolivian society. This series not only combines pictures Leydier took, but also pictures that the Afro-Bolivians themselves shot, and some archive photographs of their ancestors. It then creates (more than) three different layers of perception on the same village. It is also a try to show how identity has much to do with perception and how subjective and constantly moving it is.

In 2014, Leydieruesd the World Cup stamps printed by the Brazilian Post Office to create “Esgotados”. The artwork focuses on the Indians, who originally lived in Antigo Museu do Índio, near the Maracanã stadium, where most of the World Cup games were played in Summer 2014, and how they were then violently removed after months of struggle. This year (2016), Leydierhad “La Couleur de la baie de Rio”. She applied Indigo, a plant native from Brazil and used to dye fabrics, on negatives which feature views of Guanabara Bay. Since Indigo is an antidote against mercury intoxication, and the state of the surrounding nature and waters of Guanabara Bay are contaminated with high levels of dangerous heavy metals, including mercury, the artwork is an act of metaphorical purification. Leydieraims to show Guanabara Bay through the prism of a story that the media avoid to tell in order not to tarnish the image of the place that is going to host aquatic games during the Olympic Games of 2016, and that greatly contributes to the idealized image of Rio de Janeiro.

*
在非裔玻利維亞語中，「Alirandu」意指塊莖或種子被拔除一陣子後，又開始發芽及長出新的根。
In the Afro-Bolivian language, the word alirandu is used when a tuber or a seed that have been uprooted for a while starts to sprout again and when new roots grow.

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Elsa Leydier
http://elsaleydier.com