“Two months ago, I began to walk the streets of la Bastide de Monflanquin. Door to door, I went to meet each of its inhabitants. In search of exchanges, or even smiles, but especially for an eye contact. As the closed doors of the empty houses followed, the first ones opened. Most of the time it was very brief. We will learn nothing more about ourselves.

Then some agreed to confide their image to me. I settled in their home to immortalise, the time of a portrait, our crossed looks. This exchange of glances that I seek to capture. The device that I build keeps us away for a few moments. They observe me, I observe them, through the filter of my camera. Every door draws a new portrait that holds its strength from its difference. They are the ones who set the duration, resistant to the objective that defies them. Then the distance withers. Every second, a new person is building up in front of me.

Some of them lasted. The seconds became minutes, maintaining each other in tension. Sometimes I thought I was trapped by my own device. When the encounter continues and nothing seems to be able to stop it. The more time they give me to set their image, the more I learn about them. They talk to me through their gestures that reflect their impatience as they become aware of what is happening. Then finally the rupture happens.

Those few words separate us, and invite us to the next meeting. To get me to go around the village once again. I met them a second time, in order to spend more time with them. And because the recording allows it, they will now watch those who will watch them. “

Invitation text for the exhibition, intended for the inhabitants of the village, published in the magazine sous les arcades.

Sud Ouest