Voies Off brings together independent initiatives that flourish on the margins of the Rencontres d’Arles. In 2017, these structures frame 141 exhibitions and other photography events.
In the late eighteenth century, a devastating typhoon swept through Pingelap, a small atoll in the Pacific. The ruler of the island, who was among the survivors, was a bearer of a rare, achromatopsia-bearing gene, which affects one’s perception of colors. He had numerous offspring, and the genetic condition has gradually spread throughout the isolated community, where most inhabitants began to perceive the world in black and white. The symptoms of achromatopsia include extreme sensitivity to light, nearsightedness, and complete colorblindness. In Micronesia, the colorblind devise strategies to alleviate the effects of their handicap without access to sunglasses or tinted contact lenses: they blink, squint, cover their eyes, or reposition their body depending on the source of light.
Portraits of islanders afflicted with what, in local language, is called the “maskun”, by other Micronesians, constitute a conceptual set of images in which eyes, faces, and glances are either hidden or enhanced, inviting the viewer to enter the surreal world of multiple visual possibilities. To those unable to perceive it, color is just a word. If achromatopes could paint with their minds, how would they color the world, trees, or themselves? Based on visual research conducted in Micronesia, Sanne De Wilde sought ways to show how achromatopes see the world. She carried out photographic experiments, attempting to see the island through their eyes. The light of day is unbearable; moonlight turns night into day; fire burns in black and white; trees turn pink: there are thousands of shades of grey—the rainbow reexamined.
Sanne de Wilde, The Island of the Colorblind
July 3 to 9 2017
7 rue Balze
13200 Arles
France
