ÉLAN

ÉLAN

David de la Mano, September 2026

International Festival of Geography — FIG 2026, Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France.

Élan refers to that initial movement that sets something in motion: a spontaneous force, a desire to move forward, to cross a space and transform it.

The title connects with the theme of FIG 2026, “Landscape”, understood not only as something we contemplate, but as a territory we move through, experience and inhabit.

In the Vosges, where forests, mountains, valleys and the traces left by those who inhabit them form a constantly evolving landscape, Élan also evokes the continuous movement of nature and life. The flight of the birds and the expansion of the forms across the mural suggest an impulse moving through the landscape, connecting human beings with their territory.

The mural was created on the façade of a building belonging to the future Cambium Campus, which will host university-level cybersecurity education.