Hangar Gallery is presenting French artist Sylvie Bonnot's latest photographic series "Le Royaume des moustiques" (The Kingdom of Mosquitoes) at Paris Photo 2025, marking a significant addition to the contemporary art fair's offerings. The new body of work was completed during Bonnot's residency at the prestigious Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris as part of the Elles Cité 2025 program, which supports female artists in their creative endeavors.

The ambitious project took Bonnot deep into the Amazon rainforest of French Guiana, where she embarked on an immersive journey to document and engage with allochthonous communities who have sought refuge in this remote region throughout various historical upheavals. Her artistic exploration focuses on the intersection of different cultural cosmogonies, particularly those of the Bushinenge Cotticas and Hmong peoples, whose worldviews and traditions converge in this unique equatorial territory where lianas literally weave the physical and metaphorical connections between different worlds.

Bonnot's distinctive artistic approach combines performative engagement with landscape photography and innovative image-making techniques. For this series, she employed her signature "moulting process," a unique method that involves carefully lifting the silver gelatin membrane from photographic prints to create one-of-a-kind artworks. This labor-intensive technique results in crystallized creases throughout her works, which serve as visual metaphors for the intertwined narratives and complex relationships within this Amazonian territory that exists in a state of perpetual transformation.

The photographs capture what Bonnot describes as the "visceral sharing of resources" that characterizes life in this equatorial region. Through her sensitive use of monochrome photography, each assembled fragment of Amazonian life creates profound connections between the human communities she encountered and the surrounding animal and plant kingdoms. The resulting images offer viewers an intimate glimpse into a world where different cultures, ecosystems, and ways of life intersect and influence one another.

Born in France in 1982, Sylvie Bonnot has established herself as a prominent visual artist and photographer who divides her time between Burgundy and Paris. She is currently represented by Hangar Gallery in Brussels and is an active member of the renowned photography collective Tendance Floue. Visitors to Paris Photo 2025 can view her "Kingdom of Mosquitoes" series at Booth M03 in the Emergence sector, which specifically showcases emerging and innovative contemporary artists.