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Anthony & Florent Galasso - Symphony of Decay, Paris (2026)

03/01/2024

"Golden Era"

Churches in ruins, society in decline?

Today, hundreds of religious buildings are at the mercy of the weather, whereas they were once filled with worship and song. As religion has lost its importance on the continents during the last decades, the reconversion of many of these secular structures seems the only way out of decadence and oblivion.

One can see dilapidated pipe organs, cloisters overgrown with vegetation, long-empty pews and the sunlight penetrating the dust and rubble strewn naves.

The communion of saints is no more and gives way to an union of a different kind : a communion with nature that contrasts with the tragic fate of these divine buildings.

The secrets of what goes on "behind" the altar are then revealed to us and the beliefs dissipate like dust in the wind passing through the gaping holes of the once majestic stained-glass windows.

The architectural differences between the buildings allow us to look at the country of origin and the influences of the times. Indeed, as stated by Maurice Barrès in his work “La Grande Pitié des Églises de France”, how can we deny the educational value of our religious architecture? The church is not a trinket. It is a soul that contributes to the creation of souls". With today's perspective, this idea is even stronger. Indeed, it is difficult to affirm that the buildings of today are still filled with souls.

A common characteristic of all these buildings is that they have been very well-built, always with a concern for durability and aesthetics. A characteristic that tends to disappear in a society that goes faster and faster and where abundance is the keyword.

(France, 2021)

www.symphonyofdecay.fr

19/09/2023

"Number 8"

Upon arrival in this building with an extraterrestrial look, the wonderment is read on our face. Is it the remains of an ancient building with unknown functions that belonged to distant beings? However, everything seems to indicate to us that the beings having occupied these places are of the same species as us, Humans. What could have happened? What was the function of this strange room pierced by the orange light of the sun?

The answer is far from fantastic and reminds us of a much colder reality. Indeed, the building which is in front of us is in reality a thermal baths abandoned since the war of Abkazhia in 1992. Its code name is "Bath house number 8".

The number 8 is a community bath that was probably intended for the proletariat rather than for the elite of the Soviet party. The facility, although in a terrible state, still retains relics, including reliefs depicting forest scenes, including baby deer resembling Bamboos, that decorate the low walls that separate one set of bathing pools from another.

Those baths are part of a mineral spring healing complex erected in the town of Tskaltubo in 1870. The story goes that these springs were discovered as early as the 13th century by local shepherds.

From "A Cure for Life" series.
(Georgia / 2022)

www.symphonyofdecay.fr

21/08/2023

"Veduta"

Have you ever wondered what a place you love would look like in a state of ruin?

The painter Hubert Robert anticipates this question with his work: "The Great Gallery of the Louvre in ruins" which projects us into a future if not inevitable at least probable and cries out the vanity of civilizations, despite all the prestige and apparent solidity they enjoy.

The latter is not the only one to have emphasized the ruin in art. We could, therefore, ask ourselves why such an attraction for fallen places, where life is no more?

Perhaps because the broken parts in a ruin require our imagination to fill them in, ruins have always been associated with the occult and with dreams. They are places an observer can get lost, where time slips away

Ruins remind us that the human body will one day degrade, that life is fragile and fleeting. In addition, they fill us with an evocative melancholy and form moments of stillness in our hectic lives.

Ruins are ambivalent. The ruin is the victim of the destructive time. The ruin is also the resistance to time. The ruins are mediators between the perception of time and the perception of space.

Finally, Mankind has always lived among its own ruins. Since our earliest history, we have explored ruined places, feared them and drawn inspiration from them, and we can trace that complex fascination in our art and writing.

(Italy, 2020)

www.symphonyofdecay.fr

10/08/2023

"Silent Hill"

Abandoned Places still furnished. Marks of life, of an existence in places where time seems to have stopped from one day to the next. Questioning is the keyword here.

In the heart of these places, we attend to real scenes of lives that have remained frozen in time. This feeling of sudden abandonment is disturbing. The imaginary linked to haunted houses, urban legends and nightmares are highlighted in these time capsules.

A dilapidated facade, shutters which crack, and a terrible silence are the elements of the spectacle which are offered to the individual who dares to venture near such structures. Those desolate scenery are invigorating and characterized by a true aesthetic of chaos. Chaos which through the play of lights and shadows, offer poetic scenes.

The residual atmosphere of these places brings us to the subjects of lost souls and ghostly silhouettes that wander aimlessly. Have you ever wondered what it must feel like to be that silhouette, that shadow that sends shivers to passers-by ?

To live a life of a long wandering in a world ravaged by a sudden and violent event. To be lost in a colorless dimension where the palette of colors to paint this world of nothingness seems limited. To survive in a universe of ruins where time has stopped during your journey to the other dimension.

Visiting these decadent buildings gave us a similar experience. Plunged into a deafening gloom and into decayed but poetic and picturesque rooms, we had become these silhouettes. Horrific silhouettes lurking in the middle of the night.

A true hymn to melancholy, these places evokes both despair and decadence. Whatever their true stories, we cannot help but imagine chivalrous tales all ending with a tragic fatality: the fall of a kingdom.

No need for a time machine when walking through a sealed door allows you to go centuries back in time.

This forgotten castle lost on the heights of a hill illustrates perfectly these ideas.

(Italy, 2021)

www.symphonyofdecay.fr

21/05/2023

"Mystica"

Church, convent, synagogue or monastery. True witnesses of past centuries, these temples of religion seem indestructible.

A heritage forgotten by all, except nature. These buildings testify the decline of religions in our society, but also to a lack of financial means.

What has happened to faith, religion in our societies?

Today, hundreds of religious buildings are at the mercy of the weather, whereas they were once filled with worship and song. As religion has lost its importance on the continents during the last decades, the reconversion of many of these secular structures seems the only way out of decadence and oblivion.

In the manner of the religious at the time of the crusades, we go to these places with a tragic destiny in spite of the journey that awaits us. Sometimes gigantic obstacles stand in the way of our coming. However, our faith (and our motivation) leads us to the Holy Land.

The outcome is often temporal and mystical. Under the vault of the church or installed in the pillars, the birds sing and dance. Like a colored canvas, the colors are vivid because of the presence of nature. One can see dilapidated pipe organs, cloisters overgrown with vegetation, long-empty pews and the sunlight penetrating the dust and rubble strewn naves. A communion with nature that contrasts with the tragic fate of these divine buildings.

The secrets of what goes on "behind" the altar are then revealed to us and the beliefs dissipate like dust in the wind passing through the gaping holes of the once majestic stained glass windows.

The architectural differences between the buildings allow us to look at the country of origin and the influences of the times.

(France / 2021)

www.symphonyofdecay.fr

18/05/2023

Hello everyone,

Passionate about travel, architecture and atypical places, it is quite naturally that we succumbed to the charm of forgotten structures.

For the past 6 years, we have been photographing a once sparkling heritage, a bygone era across Europe & beyond. Our goal is to make discover a parallel universe conducive to questioning and wonder while demonstrating the poetics that exists within these abandoned buildings. We take advantage of the historical teleportation offered by these places to become true witnesses of involuntary time capsules.

In this context, we have just finalized the creation of our new website dedicated to our project "Symphony of Decay". You will be able to discover our photographic series.

Let yourself be seduced by the romanticism of the ruin.

https://www.symphonyofdecay.fr/

15/05/2023

"Sarcófago"

Grandeur and decadence. Two opposite terms which nevertheless co-exist within derelict buildings, melancholically attached to their former glory.

According to Diderot, "it is necessary to ruin a palace to make it an object of interest". Indeed, our imaginary gets carried away and the soul of the place wakes up. The beauty emerges, unexpected, giving back to this heritage of the past its glory.

The spectator, at the sight of the state of dilapidation and thus of this tragedy wonders about the incomprehension caused by its neglect. Although often colored and contrasted by the gushing light, these buildings are indeed decadent. They testify to a real paradigm shift. Refusing to be subsumed under an ideal of pure legibility, beauty in architecture here seems to proceed rather from the invocation of mystery, the unmentionable or the secret.

So how to justify this curious epidemic of faded palaces?

In the past, in order to testify to their belonging, their wealth and their power, men have built architectural follies. So much so that today, it is difficult to imagine life in these moribund residences.

One of the most convincing examples are the Assyrian kings who wanted to mark their time with an original imprint. That is why the gargantuan palaces they built were meant to show the personal glory and power of the ruler by their their size and magnificence. Each of them, in order to distinguish themselves from their predecessors, tried to build their own palace.

This palace with beautiful frescoes illustrates these ideas. Once sparkling and having marked its time, it has now fallen into disrepair.

(Portugal, 2021)

www.symphonyofdecay.fr

11/05/2023

"La Decadente Aristocrazia"

A painting of a fallen king, decadent floors and textures, broken windows, this is the spectacle that is offered to those who dare to venture into this old house now in decay. A mysterious and singular aura emanates from it. The weeds scattered around the building accentuate the uncertain future of the once glorious estate.

The abandonment is striking as well as the future of the castle: a ruin. The abandonment and the ruin are also and above all the expression of a true poetic of space which reveals a geographical imaginary where the man feels the vulnerability of his life and his work in front of time.

It is interesting to note that there is a distinction, notably described by Jules Verne in his adventures. When they are ancient, the fruit of time that inexorably passes, the ruins are admirable, literally worthy of being admired; conversely, when they are the result of man's carelessness, they express desolation, the inability of the latter to protect and maintain his own achievements. It then emerges a true aesthetic and poetic of the ruin that the traveler relates through many figures of speech, among which metaphor is the leader. The ruins are finally the expression of a powerful geographical imaginary which illustrates effectively the scheme of the descent such as presents it.

Today, this castle and its outbuildings are being restored. Thus, we can see that the ruin is not inexorably a final state but a present state.

(France / 2021)

www.symphonyofdecay.fr

22/03/2023

"Babilonia'

It is paradoxical to enter old houses with glorious pasts. Indeed, in agony, these buildings are without life. Thus, the effervescence of the beautiful time is no more, and the feeling of being privileged does not cease to exist. Everything is then only an illusion. However, thanks to the magic of trompe-l'oeil, this paradox is naturally diminished.

The trompe-l'oeil is a pictorial genre intended to play on the confusion of the perception of the spectator.

The field of trompe-l'oeil is not limited to the painting; when it exceeds the frame, it invades the entire wall and becomes a mural. The architecture is then represented according to the laws of perspective for the viewer. This is how a real game of seduction and confusion of the viewer takes place.

This villa in disrepair illustrates perfectly this art. Art that we particularly like in the places forgotten by Man.

(Italy, 2020)

www.symphonyofdecay.fr

15/03/2023

"Club Bizarre"

It's under an overwhelming heat that 4 individuals in search of old Soviet relics find themselves facing a gargantuan industrial complex. They hope to find an old forgotten showroom buried under the rubble of time. However, many obstacles prevent them from reaching this grail which seems unattainable.

Ingenuity, discretion and caution are the keys to the enigma that will lead them to the path of victory. The traps are malicious but are not enough to divert our adventurers with a thirst for discovery. Once the analysis of the building was completed and the itinerary for the ancient "temple" elaborated, it was only a matter of time for them to pe*****te the coveted room.

It was at the bend of a corridor and a rusty door, that the 4 intruders discovered with admiration this forgotten theater of a bygone era. Only the work of time and mother nature are at the origin of the degradations of the space, the sign of the rarity of such building. The writings on the different banners also seem to be from a distant era.

The 4 explorers hasten to immortalize the moment then left this time capsule before being retained forever by the threatening traps.

(Armenia, 2022)

www.symphonyofdecay.fr

13/03/2023

"Night Voices"

Archaeology is a scientific discipline whose objective is to study and reconstruct the history of mankind through the material remains that have survived.

Is it possible to consider urban exploration and photography of forgotten heritage as a more modern extension of archaeology?

According to experts, the archaeological study of modern ruins is most commonly associated with contemporary, urban, and industrial archaeology. The processes and goals involved in the archaeological study of modern ruins are very similar to that of other branches of archaeology that primarily focus on studying sites of earlier time periods. It has been argued that the archaeological approach to modern ruins should be more embodied and visually well rounded, rather than simply communicating information by conventional site descriptions and reports. Photography, for example, is often used as a medium to communicate discoveries made in modern ruins as well as in contemporary archaeological sites in general since most of the artifacts are found above ground level.

Based on studies conducted by B. Olsen and Þ. Pétursdóttir, the word ruin is an ambiguous and contested one. In our everyday comprehension, it easily brings to mind ancient and enchanted monumental structures; an archaeological dream world featuring celebrities such as Machu Picchu, Pompeii, and Angkor Wat.

When human life in it, or human use of it has come to an end, the building nonetheless still has its own life. It continues to live and interact with nature and the world around it. Abandonment, ruination and decay is not about stopping time, but about transforming into something else.

Like passionate archaeologists, we considered abandoned place as a quest. Here, a beautiful forgotten villa that we have visited last year with some Portuguese friends.

(Portugal / 2021)

www.symphonyofdecay.fr

14/02/2023

"Medea"

It is after long years of waiting that we are finally in front of what seems to be a mythical city plunged in the depths of the night. A kind of Eldorado, of Holy Grail that we covet since too long.

It is 5:30 am, when we step for the first time on this unknown and forbidden land. It is with the first light of the day that we are welcomed by an architecture at the same time decrepit and titanic. The half-light of the great spaces and the presence of stray dogs leave us a strange impression. This flat calm and the absence of life at the sight of an ancient "city" reminds us of the vision the scientists in "The Mountains of Madness" by H.P. Lovecraft had when unveiling an ancient city of gigantic proportions.

The building, which is in reality a former sanatorium that has fallen into disrepair since the fall of the Soviet empire, is in itself one of the finest examples of Stalinist architecture. With its numerous columns and its bluish archways, it is difficult not to fall under the charm of this building.

Built in 1962 in the once prestigious city of Tskaltubo, the latter, named "Medea" was deprived of its visitors, mostly Russians, in 1991. The latter will remain abandoned only very briefly. Indeed, in 1992, the war of Abkhazia bursts and it is approximately 9000 refugees who will see themselves allotting a temporary shelter in the various sanatoriums that the city counts. 30 years later, hundreds of families are still living in these old and decaying buildings.

(Georgia, 2022)

www.symphonyofdecay.fr

Anthony & Florent Galasso - Symphony of Decay

03/01/2024

19/09/2023

21/08/2023

10/08/2023

21/05/2023

18/05/2023

15/05/2023

11/05/2023

22/03/2023

15/03/2023

13/03/2023

14/02/2023

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