Photographs and texts produced by Anaïs, Sheryl, Faresse, Adèle, Céline, Charline, Burak, Lindsay, Lise, Liam, Léo, Pierre, Adèle, Maria.
Artistic intention thought and led by Benoit DeCarpentier.
Creation time conducted on 20 hours spread over a week in November 2016.
With Véronique Letellier, specialized professor.
À Regional Adapted Education Establishment Amélie Gex, Chambéry (38).
Intervention carried by Stimultania Photography center.
Support by the DRAC and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region within the framework of the Découverte Région, Passeurs de culture call for projects.
Questioning the relationship to others, belonging, appearance, individual and group; appeal to "the wild man". These were the basic words for this dense project carried out in Chambéry in an establishment welcoming young people with educational difficulties.
First, an unforgettable arrival: the photographer Benoit de Carpentier arrives at the ÉREA with the car filled to the brim with boxes, suitcases, heterogeneous objects, fabrics, plant materials, animal materials that he unwraps. in the classroom under the dumbfounded - sometimes delightfully disgusted gazes. These materials come from the collection necessary for his own practice and are the result of special attention in the weeks preceding the intervention. " Like an ecology to catch the smallest information on the fly, even (especially) fleeting information, which could be useful. I harvested the long stems of the freshly cut irises, the drooping fig leaves and that object, insignificant or not, that insists on being chosen. He says.
Unloading then appropriation. Each begins to compose the pageantry of the other, in duo or in groups. A young girl takes care of the makeup (she doesn't want to pose) and creates incredible patterns on the bodies of her classmates. Each one finds its role, manufactures and also composes the decorations for the image.
Then comes the time to pose. In front of the camera, the faces rise little by little, the shoulders widen, the gazes pierce. The fourteen young people then reveal themselves, surrounding themselves with a “savage” presence, which of warrior who of queen, rummaging in personal recesses which, perhaps, were unknown to them.
Collected in a book, this series of images thus paints a portrait of new, primitive, poetic, real beings.
Production and distribution: 35 A5 format books distributed to students; 14 70 × 70 cm and 50 × 70 cm prints exhibited in the establishment; 4 50 × 70 cm prints exhibited at Stimultania in the spaces dedicated to the residences.
Born in 1964, Benoit de Carpentier lives in Alsace. Graduated from the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ESAD) in Strasbourg, painting section in 1989, Benoît De Carpentier is a plastic photographer. His works combine reality and dreamlike, sometimes introspective sometimes turned towards the other, often philosophical and pictorial. In 2002 and 2004 he received the creation aid from the DRAC Alsace for projects around the landscape and architecture. He regularly exhibits his work, mainly in Strasbourg and Paris. He teaches photography and runs photographic projects in schools from elementary to high school.
