Les pas perdus, Law and politics University, Nice,
october 2023
With Clémence Elman, Julia Gat, Eleonora Paciullo, Eleonora Strano, Iris Winckler and the Schnepp Renou duo (Morgane Renou & Simon Schnepp).
« I looked up out to sea. The light had stopped for us, the orange disk of the sun had fallen three-quarters below the horizon, and the tears in my eyes made the sea iridescent. I took the stairs again, calmly, and I didn’t look back. »
With the last lines of The Absolute Perfection of Crime by the novelist Tanguy Viel, we invite you to set your first foot in this exhibition of photographs by artists from the surrounding shores, presented in the multiple staircases of the University.
These collected shots compose a new story, a film-like sequel in six scenes.
When we read a novel, our mind forms mental images. Here, we like to think that from the photographs we arouse the opposite mechanism in the minds of visitors.
Even more, the idea here is to blur the boundaries established between art and life, documentary and fiction, images and narrative. Les pas perdus invites us to question the mystery of the place. Who are these characters offered to our gaze? Why are they photographed? Where do they go once off-camera? And, what happens to their footsteps, captured by the artists and then lost in the anonymity of deserted places?
Some images reveal landscapes or interiors. Others focus on the representation of faces and bodies, in the city, in nature, in the sun or in the dark. The protagonists are absent or present.
All of these images document the South, the shores of the Mediterranean and the multiple representations that this topos conveys.
The University is inhabited for a few weeks by these snapshots of contemporary odysseys.
It’s your turn to come and deal with the facts.
Curator and text: Bérangère Armand, we want art everywhere.
Opening reception, inauguration of works: November 13 at 3 p.m.
Courtesy Julia Gat & Schnepp Renou