Images de fruits rêvées par de vieux paysans en hiver is a photographic installation centred on the idea of fruits as objects of desire. It contemplates the fascination and devotion that fruits have inspired throughout history, especially before they became a part of mass-produced global commodity. Bereft of their original shapes and distinctive aromas as well as of the stories that made them locally unique, the supermarket fruits of today are the same all around the world - standardised shells of promise; figurative representations of the market economy.
Filmmaker and researcher of autochthonous fruit varieties sets out on a quest to discover places in Europe, where locally grown fruits still play a significant communal and cultural role. He starts his journey in winter: he observes the resting but resilient fruit trees and converses with old farmers, who spend this time imagining the fruits that will grow on the trees in a few months. He discovers abandoned orchards overgrown with bushes and ivy, phantom-like monuments enduring the passage of time in the midst of industrialised fields, resembling 17th century landscape paintings or children’s books drawings.