Laurent Ballesta and the Gombessa expedition teams present their exhibition Gombessa – Planet Mediterranean at the Paris Diving Show, from January 6 to 9, 2023.
Through 50 exceptional prints specially created for the occasion, discover the images of this adventure that led 4 divers to explore the depths of the Big Blue to uncover its secrets!
Find this exhibition at stands A20 to B21
For every journey, its vehicle. To the stars, a spaceship, to the abysses, a bathyal station. The great depths are the distant planets of a neighboring galaxy. 100, 120, 140 meters, these distances are both derisory and insurmountable.
This universe is neither near nor distant, it is elsewhere. Reaching it is joining a parallel world: Laurent Ballesta and his comrades went very far, but they didn’t really leave. They remained at home, in the deep Mediterranean, 28 days without returning to open air.
In the twilight glow of still virgin spaces, life was dazzling. Where few divers venture, there are oases that seem to withstand destruction and extinction. These are the last refuges of all those rejected by a pressured coastline. Here are the portraits of these unknowns in limbo, the landscapes of these endangered territories. More than a new world, it’s another planet, Planet Mediterranean.
In July 2019, Laurent achieved a world first by successfully combining saturation diving means initially dedicated to offshore exploitation, with autonomous diving techniques in an electronically managed rebreather to illustrate the deep ecosystems typical of the Mediterranean, and to set up scientific protocols at these great depths. With three other divers, Antonin Guilbert, Yanick Gentil, and Thibault Rauby, they cohabited in a 5m2 module pressurized to 13 bars, equivalent to -120m depth, for 28 days. Daily, they conducted outings to freely explore and study the twilight zone between 60 and 140 meters deep, from Marseille to Monaco. In summer 2021, with support from the French Navy ship the Pioneer, he reenacted the saturation diving experience for 20 days off Cape Corse to unravel the mystery of coral rings.
Laurent Ballesta’s Conferences at the Diving Show
Laurent Ballesta will be pleased to recount his latest expeditions, between images and anecdotes. An opportunity to meet him and ask him all your questions.
Friday, January 6 at 4:00 PM
Saturday, January 7 at 4:00 PM
Sunday, January 8 at 4:00 PM
The conferences will be held in the Europe room and will be broadcast live on thescenic space to allow all visitors who wish to follow them.
Opening image © Laurent Ballesta / Andromède oceanology, Gombessa 5.