Earth Not a Globe Philippe Braquenier

Earth not a globe is a project that focuses on the so-called Flat-Earthers, a community of people who believe that the Earth is flat. When walking on the planet’s surface, it appears and feels flat; Flat-Earthers therefore trust what they see to discern the true nature of the world around them and, in a way, see only what they believe. They claim that our eyes cannot be trusted, yet rely exclusively on empirical approaches.

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They widely use photomontages and videos as propaganda tools while dismissing images of a spherical Earth as fabrications produced by a “Flat Earth conspiracy” orchestrated by NASA and other government agencies.
The project’s title originates from books written by Samuel Birley Rowbotham in the 19th century. The flat-Earth hypothesis found renewed momentum in the modern era through the proliferation of communication technologies, enabling individuals to spread pseudo-scientific ideas and gather larger followings.

The belief that the Earth is flat has been described as the ultimate conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theories are appealing because they offer simple explanations for complex phenomena, or because they give people the illusion of holding secret knowledge that powerful institutions are supposedly trying to conceal. They become prophets claiming access to information that the rest of the world is too blind to see.

Photography and film hold significant cultural and political power in our society. Images, whatever their origin, have become instruments of knowledge, debate and influence.

Working with a 4x5 camera and adopting a documentary stance, Phillipe Braquenier appears to be producing a faithful documentary study of this community, while in reality everything is staged. Each image draws on the mythology of Flat-Earthers and recreates an actual scene or a shared photomontage.

Through various media, Braquenier uses the authority of the artist to question the act of seeing in the age of post-truth. His aim is to explore the idea that facts are purely subjective, that truth is a suspicious notion, that reality is a social construct, and that human beings are intrinsically biased.

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