The Nature of Wastelands

An urban space becomes a wasteland or urban wasteland as soon as humans cease its exploitation (industrial zones, abandoned gardens, ruins of dwellings, derelict areas along transport routes, roads, rivers and canals).

The wastelands are inexorably transformed. An ecological process of spontaneous colonization by species-rich animal and plant communities takes hold. The grass goes to seed, the meadow becomes covered with brambles, shrubs, and dense thickets, sheltering the trees that grow and multiply, eventually becoming a forest.

They are spaces where nature can freely express itself. The diversity of plants and animals, along with their fruitful interactions, makes them havens for an exuberant nature that resists both management and domestication. If they are havens for flora and fauna, they also become havens for the humans who settle there to live their lives away from prying eyes; others will turn them into illegal dumps.

This exhibition is the result of ecological research conducted on approximately one hundred urban wastelands in the Hauts-de-Seine department, undertaken by ecologist Audrey Muratet in 2001. She extended her research to the entire Île-de-France region, then to the North and East of France, collaborating with photographer Myr Muratet and graphic designer Marie Pellaton. Together, they created a flora of nearly 300 common species found in urban wastelands, the only one of its kind to date for this type of environment. Over the years, an informal community has developed around the wasteland project (ecologists, sociologists, artists). This includes ecologist François Chiron, who installed automatic cameras to monitor the lives of diurnal and nocturnal animals in these spaces. This ongoing study has allowed researchers to understand the ecological, artistic, and political interrelationships present in these areas and, over time, to develop a unique perspective on urban wastelands.