Jeannine tient les maquettes de Jeannot

The video Jeannine tient les maquettes de Jeannot was filmed at my grandmother Jeannine’s place. 

In Paris, at 160 avenue du Maine, on the 2nd floor, inside her apartment. 

In the background on the right: the bedroom. In the bedroom: the bed. Behind the bed: a room filled with boxes. In these boxes: the models made by Jeannot, Jeannine’s husband. Only certain people have the privilege to enter this place, this envelope that surrounds Jeannine. 

Jeannine, sitting on the bed, tells me about her life. She turns her back to this room that contains countless boxes in which her memories are stored. She is facing me, the closed window and her television. 

Her position when she talks to me makes the link between two spaces: the intimate interior space, which remains behind her; and the outer space in front of her: the window and me listening to her. My ear and then my camera are the vehicles of this passage from a closed space to an open space. I imagine her in her story being connected to these boxes behind her and being their guardian. 

Jeannine’s interior is the story of multiple envelopes. The envelope of the walls of the apartment as a refuge, the envelope of the boxes that surround the objects of her past, then her hands that envelop these objects. This notion of envelope is connected to my practice of the image: the frame is an envelope that determines, defines but remains porous in its external environment. For me, the porosity between the frame and the outside frame symbolizes the excess of the environment and the architecture on our bodies. 

This video is part of my desire to place Jeannot’s models in Jeannine’s hands. These models that she carries will then become the scenery of her story that we build together, between memories and fantasies. Jeannine fluctuates between “being in the space” and “being the space”. She vanishes into the walls, then returns as the subject. 

The model triggers Jeannine’s speech. It is full of emotion and contains an intimate and domestic story. 

The installation of Jeannine tient les maquettes de Jeannot at Art au Centre focuses on this passage from the model to the video, from the object to its handling. It is about a woman who takes over the decor and inhabits the image.