'Terre Australes' at the Festival de la Gacilly | Mélanie Wenger

Terres Australes, a new story by Mélanie Wenger, will be exhibited at the Festival de La Gacilly. Opens June 2nd, 2022 in the Labyrinthe Végétal.

Discovered 250 years ago this year, the Austral Islands, made up of the two archipelagos of Kerguelen and Crozet and the two islands of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam, are considered jewels of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF). Little known to the general public and never taught in geography classes, surprisingly they are the largest nature reserve in France and soon will be the largest marine protected area in the world, with a sanctuary surface area of over 1.6 million square kilometers.

For five weeks, photographer Mélanie Wenger boarded the famous Marion Dufresne, a supply ship for the Southern Territories, on a journey to the edges of Antarctica, a crucial zone for the functioning of our planet, where polar and sub-Antarctic marine currents meet.