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ELOGES DE LA PERSPECTIVE/IN PRAISE OF PERSPECTIVE
a Photographic Project by Gérard Mermoz
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Developing in parallel with my ‘Histoires...’ series (2005-), ‘Eloges de la Perspective’ (In Praise of Perspective) presents a topographical record of the barracks in the internment camp of Rivesaltes, where thousands of refugees fleeing the nazis and Franco’s army—Spanish, Gipsies, Communists, Jews—were imprisonned by the authorities of the Vichy government.
The photographs present the barracks in their current state of dereliction (after half-hearted attempts at bulldozing them) from a standardized Albertian perspective view. This formal choice transforms the topographical record of the buildings into photographic allegories and memorials; inviting us to reflect about what happened there and to mourn ‘our’ losses; before the site gets turned into a Memorial park, managed and administered by state administration .
As the camp is military property and access forbidden to unauthorized persons, the project required trespassing as a deliberate act of civil disobedience to perform the ‘devoir de mémoire’, required by the State from responsible citizens.
A preliminary series entitled ‘Eight postcards from Rivesaltes’ consists of rectangular images printed with white margins; overlayered with short texts from the account of Swiss Red Cross nurse Friedel Bohny-Reiter, who worked in the camp between 1941 and 1942.
‘Eloges de la Perspective’ also consists of a series of diptychs and polyptychs made of square elements (61 x 61 cm) each carrying an image or a text from Bohny-Reiter’s Journal de Rivesaltes—each mounted between aluminium and acrylic. Edition 5.
An edition mounted on aluminium and floated in a frame behind glass. Size: 61 x 61 cm, is also planned, in an edition of 5.
The photographs present the barracks in their current state of dereliction (after half-hearted attempts at bulldozing them) from a standardized Albertian perspective view. This formal choice transforms the topographical record of the buildings into photographic allegories and memorials; inviting us to reflect about what happened there and to mourn ‘our’ losses; before the site gets turned into a Memorial park, managed and administered by state administration .
As the camp is military property and access forbidden to unauthorized persons, the project required trespassing as a deliberate act of civil disobedience to perform the ‘devoir de mémoire’, required by the State from responsible citizens.
A preliminary series entitled ‘Eight postcards from Rivesaltes’ consists of rectangular images printed with white margins; overlayered with short texts from the account of Swiss Red Cross nurse Friedel Bohny-Reiter, who worked in the camp between 1941 and 1942.
‘Eloges de la Perspective’ also consists of a series of diptychs and polyptychs made of square elements (61 x 61 cm) each carrying an image or a text from Bohny-Reiter’s Journal de Rivesaltes—each mounted between aluminium and acrylic. Edition 5.
An edition mounted on aluminium and floated in a frame behind glass. Size: 61 x 61 cm, is also planned, in an edition of 5.
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