Kourtney Roy: All Inclusive

The exhibition All Inclusive at the Cité de l'Économie (Citéco) presents a compelling dialogue between the high-gloss aesthetics of travel and the complex machinery of global tourism. Through thirty striking works by Canadian photographer Kourtney Roy, the curation explores the friction between the idealized "vacation dream" and the underlying economic realities. By staging these vibrant, cinematic images within the neo-Renaissance grandeur of the Hôtel Gaillard, the exhibition highlights how the tourism industry functions as a powerful economic force, often masking its social and environmental impacts behind a veneer of tropical perfection and leisure.

Central to the showcase are three distinct photographic series—In Between Worlds, The Tourist, and Sorry, No Vacancy—which collectively map a diverse topography of displacement. In The Tourist, Roy adopts a satirical lens, casting herself in exaggerated, stereotypical poses that mirror the artifice of a vintage postcard. Key works like Ceviche and Yellow Ferry utilize saturated colors and highly composed backdrops to evoke the 1950s travel aesthetic, yet they simultaneously reveal the cracks in this manufactured glamour. These pieces serve as a sharp critique of contemporary travel habits, transforming familiar scenes of cruise ships and sun-drenched beaches into sites of quiet, performative unease.

The historical and economic significance of the exhibition lies in its ability to deconstruct the tourism industry as a globalized commodity. While Roy’s work in In Between Worlds captures the suspended, liminal time of ferry crossings and transit—as seen in Arrivée à Sardaigne—the accompanying scientific discourse provided by Citéco sheds light on the economic weight of these movements. The curation addresses pressing issues such as climate change, social inequalities in access to travel, and the transformation of local economies. This dual approach ensures that the visitor is not merely a spectator of beautiful imagery but an active participant in questioning the sustainability of the "all-inclusive" lifestyle.

The emotional resonance of the exhibition is found in its delicate balance of humor and melancholy. Roy’s cinematic stagings, inspired by Italian neorealism and the whimsical characters of Fellini, evoke a sense of nostalgic longing while remaining firmly rooted in a critique of the present. The exhibition invites a profound reflection on how we inhabit the world as tourists, moving between the desire for escape and the reality of our ecological footprint. Ultimately, All Inclusive is a vibrant yet unsettling journey that challenges the viewer to look beneath the sunny surfaces of travel advertisements to find the intricate, often destructive, web of cultural and economic exchanges that define our modern era.

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