The exhibition Les Murs parlent aussi focuses on an architectural theme. It brings together works highlighting spaces that exude a particular atmosphere, a "Genius Loci" or spirit of place.
François-Xavier Gbré, whose work inspired the title of the exhibition, sees architecture as a witness to history. The buildings he photographs are deserted, bearing traces of social and economic change. There are few, if any, figures in his images, but the human element remains central to his approach. "Human history is written on walls", says the artist. Jo Ractliffe also studies subjects such as memory, history and social instability. Her series Terreno Ocupado shows Luanda, the capital of Angola, five years after the end of the civil war that lasted from 1975 to 2002.
Gundula Schulze Eldowy documents cities in East Germany between 1977 and 1990, highlighting the scars left by war and an authoritarian regime. Offering a face of Bordeaux, far from the established circuits, Anne Garde freezes the traces of a past that is partly gone today. Likewise, Bertille Bak's sketchbook records the facades of the mining town of Barlin, at the dawn of a comprehensive renovation campaign imposed by a property management company. Although the houses were initially identical, over the years the tenants have carried out minor exterior alterations, making each one unique. Alexander Costello's videos bear witness to the scheduled demolition of high-rise buildings. The artist, with his back to the stage, remains hieratic and unshakeable, surrounded by a crowd that has come to contemplate the spectacle.
Jean Dieuzaide, Walker Evans and Raymond Depardon, each in their own way, work with movement, exploration and travel. Their photographs show places where man's imprint remains. It was in the context of a reportage that Jean Dieuzaide criss-crossed Spain in 1951, under Franco's regime. In terms of the subjects he tackled and the way he looked at reality, the artist is akin to so-called humanist photography. Walker Evans, famous for his images taken during the Great Depression, takes a documentary approach, favoring a vision of reality characterized by distancing and frontality. Raymond Depardon favors a different vision of the USA, in the form of a "voyage-remembrance" in tribute to a deceased friend, immortalizing places where they had spent time together. Finally, Deborah Turbeville and Martine Aballéa create empty, ghostly spaces. Deborah Turbeville's skilful stagings are charged with an atmosphere of mystery, peopled with memories. The artist accentuates their old-fashioned quality by imbuing them with a blurred, grainy quality and a particular tonality. As for Martine Aballéa, she saturates the colors of her confinement postcards to create the beginnings of narratives in environments that are both quaint and disquieting.
