MOSSLESS: How long does it take to make these?
CORINNE VIONNET: I have worked on the series “Photo Opportunities” since 2005. It took me around one week to create each image. I didn’t work in a systematic way but instead used the photos as a pallet to achieve an impressionistic image. 

ML: How do you feel about these tourist traps? Are you embracing them or is this a critique?
CV: It’s not a critique, but rather a question. I’m unable really to translate my emotions and feeling in words, I share and reveal them through my images. Images have always been important to me. They surround me and nourish me. 

Using collected vernacular photographs of famous sites, “Photo Opportunities” tries to conjure up questions about our collective memory. Through this personal interpretation, it also shows my own visual culture. 

ML: What do you think of Idris Khan’s work? How is your work different?
CV: Of course, when talking about the technique of superimposing images these two works could be compared, but then so can many other works using the same kind of technique, such as Mike Mike’s work with Face of Tomorrow. Each of these works speaks about very different subjects and expresses something different.

Also, the technique (camera, software, etc) is only a tool that enables me to translate and share some thoughts on a subject, questions that I have, or part of a landscape I’ve seen or emotion I had. 

ML: I also love your Museum On Hold work. I always wanted to see what was behind these curtains and makeshift walls when I was at museums. Actually, I still do. Did you too when you were younger? Do you still feel that way after shooting this project? 
CV: Before I started this work I had many opportunities to see these “in between exhibition” moments. I was curious to see “behind the curtains”; everything changes fast. A person removes the letters pasted on the middle of a wall, another is already painting the beginning of it. 

But there is a special moment when the art works are away from their supports or when a room is empty. It made me wonder about the legitimation of art through museums, but also the importance of the building itself, as today the museums are visited for their architecture as well as their artwork.