what comes before

Each print is the final stage of a destruction. Aim at it to travel back in time. what comes before is the augmented-reality extension of a photographic series on burned forests. The first series was photographed at the Plaine des Maures, in the Var (France), in 2024. Each slide was burned, photographed, then burned again: the final print is the last layer of a palimpsest. This app lets you walk through that palimpsest. Point your device at a print from the series: its earlier states appear one after another, suspended in the room at the artwork's real scale. Move freely — step back to see the whole stack, come close to a single layer, walk between them. Time becomes a space you cross on foot. The experience requires a physical print from the series as its starting point: the app accompanies the artworks — in galleries, exhibitions, or collectors' homes. Prints are unique editions (1/1), digital and analog photography on Hahnemühle Rag Matt Baryta paper, sold at Artenae gallery. Romain Lalire