Last Paradise, by Kourtney Roy (photography) and Mathias Delplanque (music)
Last Paradise is the evocation in sound and image of the last vacation of a singular female character in a deserted seaside universe. The project takes root in the Rimini region (Italy), where the artist duo goes in February 2024, out of season, to work on the design of their joint work, Last Paradise , the winning project of the 6th edition of the Swiss Life Prize for 4 hands.
Roaming tourist resorts emptied of any human presence, Kourtney Roy stages and photographs herself, diverting spaces and objects, which she transforms into
ephemeral film sets and props. Orbiting her own planet, she is interested in liminal spaces, the marginal zones of celebrity and human pleasure.
An actress without an audience, wandering in a universe of desolation still marked by noise and human frenzy, she invests abandoned architecture and dialogues with found objects, trying to give them a new life, to reveal their strange beauty.
Eager to compose music that dialogues with Kourtney Roy's visual proposals, without ever seeking to illustrate them, Mathias Delplanque also lets himself be guided and inspired by the context of the Adriatic coast. He immerses himself in the world of vintage Italian synthesizers, many of which were designed in the Rimini region. Contacted by him, local collectors open the doors of their studios to him. The instruments are distinctive, unexpected, rare. The sound is immediately charged with intense emotion. All the sounds produced by the musician for this project come from instruments recorded on site, or at least instruments made in Rimini. Added to this is field recording work carried out during Kourtney's photo shoots.
Inspired by giallo film music, Z-movies, Balearic disco and easy listening, the artist, for Last Paradise, composes a vaporous and offbeat version. Like a jukebox
working all by itself in an empty club on a Sunday morning.
