The Maison de la Vie Associative in Arles hosts an exhibition of Serge Assier’s project which blends photography and literature.
If Serge Assier weren’t a photographer, there is no doubt he would have been a writer, a poet. Photography is for him a roundabout way of expressing what can’t be said in writing the way he would have wanted to say it. More than a way of looking at the world, photography reveals a way of thinking. Like writing, it unfolds in silence. Through what it shows, it invites us to discover what it says. In the silence of the image, in the absence of words, it tells a story. It is up to us to imagine. For this is about writing, even beyond etymology.
The exhibition brings together sixty-five portraits of writers to pay tribute to literature. It’s a gallery of portraits, a sort of museum where we are invited to stroll around. This is an invitation to discover Serge Assier’s pantheon populated by friends, poets and writers he met, loved ones, and all those who, close or near, were a major presence in his life. In the relationship that unites writing and photography, every image corresponds to a thought. The voice of the writer can be heard: it’s a bit as if he were about to speak. Our attention is drawn to a word, a gesture, a glance, an expression, and what we perceive is a different image of the writer.
Laurence Kučera
Laurence Kučera is a professor of literature in Montpellier, France.
Serge Assier, Correspondances: 65 portrais d’écrivains
July 1 to August 15, 2017
Maison de la vie associative—Galerie de l’Atrium
2 Boulevard des Lices
13200 Arles
France
http://www.arlesasso.fr/
