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Purpose
I am interested for some years in the consequences of the transformation
of eating habits and in its additional effects at the world level.
The culture, the breeding, the preparation, the preservation
and the sharing of the food conditioned human relationships during
centuries, shaping bodies and its representations, the religions,
the myths and a lot of popular beliefs. The man was what he ate:
a hunter, a gatherer, a farmer … Today, I want to say that
the westernized city-dweller is at first a consumer, passing
off more and more questions connected to his food on the industry,
the marketing and the advertizing. He sacrifices the essential
element of his survival and his physical well-being to the return
and to the profit, he loses the notion of what is healthy for
its body and necessary in its vital balances. He lets markets
aim at the standardization of the behavior by the globalization
of a normative, calibrated and industrialized consumption, To
the detriment of the local traditions of production and food.
It generates food imbalance, in quality and in quantity, and
we see developing grave and endemic pathologies connected to
absurd behavior: anorexia, bulimia, allergies, obesity …
I decided to multiply the angles of views on these questions,
photographing not only the persons but also their kitchens, refrigerators,
sources of supply, as well as the network of food production
and the media orders which incite us permanently to eat always
a little more …
The relationship of every individual in its body is inseparable
of its relationship in the food, the one modelling the other
one permanently, the influenced often by the more and more strong
social pressure, especially for the women. The question of the
image becoming essential for many, it is important to make the
image correspond which we have of one, the one that we wish to
give and the one that the others send back to us. Mostly, the
point of comparison is the standard conveyed by the media: it
is necessary to be young, beautiful, does well and healthy. Without
questioning it really, we shall look by all the means to get
closer to it: diets in any kinds, substitutes and food complements,
medicines, plastic surgery, body-building, absorption of hormones
and genetic manipulations know an unprecedented development …
According to his(her) origins, to his(her) culture and to his(her)
personality, each invents the eating habits which he (she) can,
source of balance or unlimited fears.
This body, I try to show him(it) in a neutral way, it is an element
of the set and has to contribute to its balance.
Of the confrontation with the face of the other one, we never
go out unhurt, it is by the glance of others that our humanity
is infinitely questioned and replayed, that our consciousness
- our soul ? Shows itself in its peculiarity.
The being, the appearing and the making are not strictly connected
any more but taken care separately by the science, the medicine
and the technology which manage to consider the body not as the
place of the individuality, but rather as an exchangeable machine
to modify genetically, to remodel plastically, to perfect and
to prolong thanks to " the artificial intelligence ",
A binding and awkward envelope of which it would be desirable
to get rid not to be more than perfect machines or pure spirits...
I
chose the color and the ambient light for kitchens, refrigerators,
production lines, stores and advertisements; it allows to recreate
atmospheres according to every character, to his preferences,
to his place of life … It gives a plastic rhythm in the
compositions where I associate the familiar and the unknown,
the public and private, the field and the reverse angle, the
back of the scenery !
In
this project introduced in 2001 to Sherbrooke, in Quebec, and
pursued in the mineral field, I photographed persons in the different
and sometimes pathological behavior: men, women, children - any
merged ages, seeking countrymen and city-dwellers. In this respect
the variety of the mineral field where I worked within the framework
of the exhibition of Sallaumines, is very interesting because
we meet populations of different origins there keeping exogenous
food traditions associated with those of the region. Since then,
this project was enriched in the other French regions... |
