To observe territories and bear witness to how they develop: for over twenty-five years, these have been the main objectives behind Anne-Marie Filaire’s work. It all started in 1992 in Auvergne, where she took part in the Observatoire Photographique du Paysage”the photographic landscape observatory”, a project commissioned by the Ministry of Environment. Later on, she worked in the Middle East and in the Red Sea region where, until recently, she has traveled back and forth to document the area, as she puts it, “informally,” mainly through landscapes.
Israel–Palestine (1999–2007); Yemen–Eritrea (2000–2005); Beirut, south suburbs–South Lebanon (2006); the Jordanian-Syrian border (2014): these four series cover territories scarred by history and a life punctuated by conflicts which set one state against another in intermittent wars and, even worse, pitch one population against another in daily clashes. Intifadas, the construction of the separation wall in Gaza, redrawn borders: Anne-Marie Filaire gets under the skin of these issues since, unlike a reporter, she is not describing the facts. On the contrary, she often photographs empty spaces and non-events, or seeks to register traces. This personal, intimate documentary approach inspired the exhibition curator Fannie Escoulen to design a display such that the images are neither ordered by series nor arranged chronologically, but are organized by geographical zone. This strategy places the viewer halfway between reality and fiction, between historical events and the artist’s emotional response. This choice authorizes the viewer to take a step back and enjoy the beauty of the images, most of which are black and white. Through delicate details and subtle strokes—as in the photograph showing a road coming to an end in the middle of nowhere—the images foreground the absurdity and the complexity of the situation in a part of the world that feels both distant and yet very familiar. As Anne-Marie Filaire puts it : “A landscape allows you to tell the whole story.”
Sophie Bernard
Exhibition
Anne-Marie Filaire, Zone de sécurité temporaire
March 4 to May 29, 2017
MUCEM
Fort Saint-Jean
Bâtiment Georges Henri Rivière (GHR)
Marseille
Publication
Anne-Marie Filaire, Zone de sécurité temporaire
Published by Éditions Textuel and MUCEM
€ 55
