Emoplux

coming

Between 1828 and 1829, the nine lithographs of the Vues de Luxembourg series were published and sold in Luxembourg. Six of these drawings were created by Jean-Baptiste Fresez (1800–1867), while the remaining three were by his student Jean-Nicolas Bernard (1803–1866). Originally intended as souvenirs for wealthy bourgeois and Prussian officers, these images gradually took on a nostalgic, even romantic quality. They evoke a Luxembourg of the past, the era of the fortress, and have become ingrained in the collective imagination. Even today, reproductions of these lithographs can be found in bourgeois salons across the city, reflecting their deep-rooted presence in history and their role in shaping a national identity. For this reason, they are featured in the permanent exhibition of the Musée Draï Eechelen, housed in the former Thüngen Fort in Kirchberg.

Nearly two hundred years later, photographer and filmmaker Yann Tonnar revisits these scenes, capturing the same viewpoints through his lens. Using a digital collage technique, he overlays his contemporary photographs onto the original lithographs. This photomontage highlights the passage of time and the intrusion of the modern world into the urban landscape: the arrival of trains, airplanes, and automobiles, the rise of tourism, continuous construction projects, new districts, and—most notably—the dismantling of the fortress. This dismantling, decided by the Treaty of London in May 1867, was a key event that enabled the young nation to maintain its independence.

La Cité transparente (The Transparent City) refers both to a vision that reveals the historical layers of the city and to the artistic technique used, which plays with the transparency of overlapping images. In a single composition, different time periods coexist, as do different artistic techniques—each reflecting its own time period: lithography and digital photography. Additionally, collage, which gained recognition as an artistic practice in the early 20th century, is also at play, echoing the efforts of artists who sought to capture the complexity of representing the modern world. Yann Tonnar’s composite images follow a similar approach, questioning our relationship with our environment subject to development and deconstruction, with history, and with collective identity.