Des Petits Riens
("little nothings")
Nothingness is without form, without content, without common sense. Finally, nothingness is something, a state that escapes definition to evoke only a feeling that is vague and negative, possibly bitter? It is perceived as being unusual, wretched, banal, impersonal...
"It's nothing..."; "Nothing to worry about!"
Why should this futile, superficial and insignificant state be honoured by dedicating an entire photographic work to it?
In the words of Serge Gainsbourg [1]:
"(...)
Rien c'est déjà (nothing is already)
Rien c'est déjà beaucoup (nothing is already a lot)
(...)"
A lot meaning "an entire world": a reflection in the absence of a sense, a harmony within the dissonance, a singular authenticity among the general banality.
These little nothings that manifest themselves in daily life constitute a power that is capable of constructing/destroying an entire human life. It is not nothing, it is full: of good and bad things, of pleasures, joys and tears, suspense and expectations... One must hold one's breath with every butterfly that flies off, to draw and redraw to infinity the shapeless outlines of these little nothings that are at the beginning of every story.
[1] Artist: Serge Gainsbourg / Album: Serge Gainsbourg Percussions / Year: 1964 / Title: Ces Petits Riens
Text: Annick Meyer
English translation by Claire Weyland
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© CDI 2014