J'aime mon quartier, je ramasse [2011]
collective website at http://loserskeepers.tumblr.com/
For years I walked with my head looking down, I liked picking up what others had lost or thrown away a (a philia shared by many). My findings allowed me to better know the cities I lived in or visited. And also to create my own topography, my visual anecdotage.
During my first years in Paris finding and keeping notes, photographs, letters... became an obsession. Every photo, every note revealed certain aspects of the city, of my neighborhood, and obscured others: who discarded such personal items so lightly? What was the story behind them?
The starting point of this project is an exhibition held at the gallery of the Cité des arts in 2007. A diaporama of all the objects I had found during my first years in Paris was projected onto a large window, the images were alternated with messages like: Is this yours? Have you lost anything? Inquire here
Inside mounted on a wall (art gallery style) were all the objects, framed, numbered and signed. Transformed into “art pieces”. Owners could identify and claim their objects and take them home with added value.
Obviously, no one came.
I still think that each object, regardless of its insignificance, has the possibility of a story... even if there is no one to tell it, even if it needs to be made up.
And here they are, objects and stories told with the invaluable help and talent of others. These objects don't belong to them and yet, curiously enough, they know their stories.
P.S. The title in French is taken from a Parisian campaign to encourage (dog) walkers to keep the city clean. I love my neighborhood, I pick up.