The interstices

If words fail, why not invent a little? Frédéric Stucin had decided to pass the checkpoint two years earlier. He no longer knows if the taxi hadn't wanted to venture into zone 3 or if he himself had chosen to walk the last few meters each month. Zem wished to leave the climatic dome and the indifferent people; for Frédéric it was perhaps simply a question of meeting others, who could also be his own. He had responded to the strange challenge of the Villa Pérochon. Had been designated by the users of a cafeteria. The bar and the people had quickly become familiar to him. They were neighbors after all and the residents of Area 3 were free to come and go. To speak (even if sometimes the words fail). I sometimes feel like I'm struggling with a part of my brain that keeps bringing me music that bothers me. So let's follow him into these gray settings – where only Jacques Tati could have done a pirouette. I feel that we would like to see in the dark like cats.

Let's get closer to these familiar faces. I feel at times that I could fall. Falling from a fall I've never had before. I wonder if I could get over it. For the other falls, I know. Let's come closer. Let's sit at the bar. Let's taste kiwi, caramel or orgeat syrup while Ondine Millot tells us about Vanceslas, the eyes of Jean-Luc, Sarah, Austria, Auguste's Bic bleu, the darts champion and Colette's brushing. The boats in the West Indies, the tight coffees. I feel it even better if I close my eyes. Zone 3 is gray, yes, but the gray is warm like that of bees. In the middle of the exhibition, we too are in an interstice. We understand everything. Frédéric Stucin was able to feel good there; maybe he also had cat eyes. I feel that we are sometimes disappointed not to be a cat.

Celine Duval
Quotations are taken from I smell by Ito Naga, published by Cheyne

Autumn 2020. Frédéric Stucin, photographer, pushes the door of the P'tite Cafète, in Niort. Attached to the psychiatry center of the hospital, the place is a place of care where patients who wish to can come and spend some time, have a drink, eat an ice cream, watch a match on TV, chat with each other or with caregivers. . One week per month, the photographer will offer them the opportunity to create, together, “real dream portraits”. A photograph that tells them, that says what you want to say about yourself, at that moment. The bet of this project is that the outside gaze is no longer an impediment, but on the contrary an opportunity for sharing. Let the patients show instead of being watched.

The interstices is the fruit of this immersion, organized on the initiative of the Villa Pérochon, center of contemporary photographic art located in Niort, and one of the psychiatric departments of the hospital. Between the portraits are interspersed views of the premises – P'tite Cafète and the psychiatric unit as a whole – as well as astonishing archive photographs found in the boxes of the service.