For his project Oasis, Matthieu Litt explores a terrain that is called ‘Ry-Ponet’, named after the small river that flows there. It is located in the metropolitan area of the Belgian city of Liège and covers an area of 350 hectares, five kilometers from the historic city center. It is an unplanned landscape park with hills and unexpectedly large biodiversity. At the time of globalization, the green lung is a symbol of resistance, a place to breathe, to escape from city noise and pollution, a shelter for people and animals.
Matthieu Litt is mainly interested, in his practice and his approach, by the concept of distance and closeness, the means by which the tracks can be blurred, the markers between images coming from horizons or from radically different contexts. This gave him the opportunity, in just three years, to produce two first books highly noticed by the critics and amateurs, Horsehead Nebula first (with images from former Soviet republics), then Tidal Horizon, which brews images taken during an artist residency in Norway. Essentially using photography but without exclusivity, he’s contributing to a growing number of editorial projects.
This project was nominated for the Somfy Photography Award 2020 and is presented in Het Nederlands Fotomuseum.