Nicolas Provost

07:41, Color, Mute, BE, 2010
The City of Lights; Sin City. Hollywood movies have etched Las Vegas in our collective memory: an absurd place where reality is suspended, where people go to forget their everyday sorrows, to find entertainment or to pursue a lifelong dream of easily acquired wealth. When we imagine the Strip, the world’s most well-known gambling boulevard, we see a mental image of fake, exuberant casinos, mega-hotels and glitzy resort architecture, drowned in a sea of neon light. ‘Storyteller’ by Nicolas Provost enhances and aestheticizes this iconic urban landscape. Aerial film footage of the Las Vegas skyline is turned into artificial, slick and poetic imagery, reminiscent of science fiction. Strange space ships seem to be floating through the universe, until the camera zooms in on buildings and architecture, glitter and kitsch. In an almost hypnotic way, some of the city’s pure beauty and madness is revealed.