solastalgia.
Solastalgia : neologism developed from the English word “solace” derived from the Latin “solacium” with meanings connected to the relief of distress and the suffix “algia” borrowed from “nostalgia” translating as “pain”.
Coined in 2003 by the Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht, the concept describes the feeling of distress or desolation felt in the face of the degradation of our everyday natural environment. Solastalgia is characterized by the pain of seeing one’s home disappear, of no longer recognizing in one’s own window the outside that gives us solace. The French philosopher Baptiste Morizot broadens the concept to our “living condition” in the face of environmental metamorphoses. The ephemeral human is now more stable than his environment. Thus, solastalgia becomes “homesickness, but at home”.
Heat waves, land artificialization, bushfires, deforestation, endangered biodiversity, etc., human beings, through their actions and the consequences of their actions, irrevocably transform the natural landscapes that surround us and deteriorate the health of our planet. Facing this destruction, our reactions are many: anxiety, powerlessness, denial, anger, sadness, guilt, etc. These are the emotions that built up the starting point of this series, the emergence of uncertainty and the need to question the values that shaped me. Rather than proclaiming an alarmist and disillusioned speech, I chose to develop the emotional and intimate dimension of my awareness.
My exploration of solastalgia seeks to answer the question expressed by Baptiste Morizot: how can we live in a damaged world, that is to say in exile at home, and give meaning and form to our distress? Here I chose to create color photographs that evoke the solace found in familiar and everyday natural environments which are now increasingly threatened with disappearance each year due to climate-related disasters. These images bear witness to the wildfires that occurred in Brittany and the Landes, as well as the drought in Anjou along the banks of the Loire, places where I live or have lived.
Sources:
G. Albrecht, Earth Emotions : New Words for a new World, Cornell University Press, 2019
B. Morizot, Ce mal du pays sans exil. Les affects du mauvais temps qui vient, Revue Critique, 2019