Body show
” The secret of happiness and the height of art is to live like everyone else, while being like no one.”
Simone de Beauvoir
Mémoires d’une jeune fille rangée (1958)
Based on the views of young women on the representation of their bodies, the series addresses the relationship between self-representations of the female body, bodies staged, “body spectacle”, bodies that speak.
Apart from any fetishism, the relationship between clothing and the body allows each woman to explore a multiple scenography of her self-representations.
Photo 1 Clo – Photo 2 Ivannalys – Photo 3 Manon
Sarah’s motto was: “Even so” “It was not a coincidence, but the result of a deliberate desire. At the age of nine, I had chosen this motto, after a formidable jump over a ditch that no one could jump and to which my young cousin had challenged me; I had damaged my face, broken a wrist, and left my body sore. And while I was being transported I cried out, angrily: “Yes, yes, I will do it again, all the same, if I am challenged again!” And I will do what I want to do all my life! »
Anchor point of the project, for each of the young women who participate in this project, the confrontation with the portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, photographed at the age of 20 by Nadar in 1864, wearing only a burnous, the portrait of a young actress, staging his performance to conquer the Parisian theater scene.
Félix Nadar, Sarah Bernhardt at mid-leg, face full, hands placed on a column, 1864.
Photo 1 A. Photo 2 Céline Photo 3 H.
« Body show »
Here also no or little decoration: a chair, a drape which evolves from the status of clothing to that of decoration.
Then, from a “fragment” of an outfit, a series of hats, or a piece of fabric, a linen veil, each woman improvises her own story, hesitant, with its variations and contradictions.
What remains for the photographer is the lighting of this scenography, of this improvised writing, of these stories which tell us about the self-representation and the staging of the female body that young women of the 21st century are confronted with on digital networks.
Photo 1 Clo Photo 2 Mélanie Photo 3 Céline
” J’ai passé un été entier, assis sur une chaise, chez moi, à Paris, en 1972. Une douleur sans motif apparent. Trois mois sur cette chaise, à ne rien faire. Raide, immobile, les yeux ouverts, les mains sur les genoux, je demeurais dix heures par jour dans cette position. Je n’ai aucun souvenir des nuits. La seule visite dont je me souviens est celle de la lumière qui pénétrait dans la pièce – délabrée, d’environ quarante mètres carrés – vers midi trente et la quittait vers dix-neuf heures. Le téléphone était coupé. Il n’y avait pas de musique. La chaise était inconfortable. Pourquoi cette chaise ? Parce qu’elle impliquait une certaine tenue du corps. Sur un lit, je serais mort.”
Douleur exquise
Sophie Calle
Photo Manon