To create his images, Nicolas Baier frequently uses a digital scanner to systematically scan the surface of things, and then he reassembles the different fragments obtained into a new composition. The result of this procedure can be seen in the work Planète (2003), a monumental circular image that appears to bring us closer to the surface of a heavenly body. If we are attentive, however, we are gradually transported, through an effect resembling the cinematic travelling shot, to a bird’s-eye view above a round table. The planet’s roundness is suddenly eclipsed by the texture of a table with a distressed surface. Exploring the image further, we encounter a hint of perspective on the dark side of the globe. We immediately return to an earthly environment, but this time we are in a landscape. The multiple layers, the sense of transference and condensation, like that of visual interference, constantly confuse the relationship between the spaces depicted. This tactic also produces unexpected visual shifts from surface to depth, as well as a kind of telescoping between spaces. The depth of the image creates the illusion that time is unfolding, as though the visual force of each of these strata reproduced the effect of a film sequence that cannot be erased from our perception. Thus, each time our eye is caught by a space rising to the surface, the preceding space shifts to the background, is deferred, or at least is perceived through the pictorial matter in which it now seems enveloped.