Marion Desjours
Crónicas Maguenesas
Crónicas Maguenesas
Marion Desjours
Welcome to Maquén, a barren, waterless planet bathed in improbable hues. In this unfamiliar world, an explorer-photographer arrives as a space tourist, setting foot on an enigmatic land and venturing to grasp its essence and unravel its mysteries.
Through this visual fiction, titled Las Crónicas Maguénesas, I explore our complex relationship with discovery and otherness, drawing a parallel with our own planet—one that is becoming increasingly inhospitable—and humanity’s apparent urge to explore and colonize.
The volcanic landscapes of Famara, on the island of Lanzarote, serve in this project as the stage for a world where reality and imagination blur, inviting us to reflect on our longing for distant frontiers and our neglect of what lies within reach.
At dawn, upon arriving there, I was struck by the ethereal quality of the landscape—an expanse of volcanic terrain and rugged mountains bathed in a soft pastel glow. The vastness of this arid land, seemingly untouched, evoked a sense of otherworldliness, as if suspended between dream and reality.
This environment immediately called to mind The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, where science fiction flirts with the fantastic and space conquest becomes as much an introspective journey as a discovery of the unknown. Echoing this idea, I also reference Andrei Tarkovsky’s cinematic interpretation of Stanisław Lem’s Solaris, in which the exploration of outer space becomes a metaphor for confronting our inner landscapes.
From this emerged a pressing question: why romanticize the colonization of Mars while neglecting the urgent need to care for our own planet? Why extend our reach into the galaxy only to replicate the same patterns of destruction? As Neil deGrasse Tyson sharply pointed out, “If you have that much technology to fly to another planet through black holes and things, it seems to me you have enough technology to fix the blight on the crops on Earth.” His words echo a growing unease—the concern that the dream of colonizing new worlds often masks a refusal to heal the one we already inhabit.
It is within this tension—between technological ambition and ecological responsibility—that this photographic project takes root. Suspended between fascination and unease, it challenges our perception of exploration and the narratives we construct about the places we choose to settle—or abandon.
Thus, Las Crónicas Maguénesas was conceived: a photographic project that reimagines our world through the lens of an unfamiliar reality. By weaving together irony and discrepancy, the work invites reflection on our relationship with exploration, environmental responsibility, and the stories we tell about the places we call home.