The exhibition “They Oblique, They Obstinate, They Storm” presents a unique collection of photographic and textual works by Agnès Geoffray. They were conceived as part of research conducted with Vanessa Desclaux, supported by the grant from the Institut pour la Photographie, using institutional archival resources concerning the “preservation schools” of Cadillac, Doullens, and Clermont-de-l’Oise, public institutions for the placement of underage girls in France from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. Agnès Geoffray and Vanessa Desclaux explored the journeys of young girls described as “deviant” or “uneducable,” imprisoned for several years due to behavior that deviated from the social and moral norms governing their gender. By juxtaposing Agnès Geoffray’s works with a selection of historical documents,photographs, press articles, and administrative documents the exhibition focuses on the forms of their revolt and the expression of their aspirations for emancipation.
Agnès Geoffray’s photographs depict gestures of opposition, defense, uprising, flight, or escape. They created fictional portraits of female figures who confront or, conversely, resist by fleeing, to escape the violence of confinement. Excerpts from texts are projected onto the surface of certain images, allowing written, shouted, or sung words borrowed from various sources or invented by the artist to resonate. Writing embodies an emancipatory function in the exhibition, allowing women to assert their own subjectivity, reclaim words, and make their voices heard.
While the exhibition echoes a historical period founded on a society and institutions that have since been transformed, it invites us to rethink today, in a poetic and political manner, the marginalized lives of these young girls whose bodies have been subjected to the health, moral, medical, and educational influence of a carceral enterprise that was not identified as such.
Curator: Vanessa Desclaux
Agnès Geoffray, Elles obliquent, elles obstinent, elles tempêtent
Commanderie Saint Luce
July 7 – September 21, 2025
9:30 AM – 7:30 PM
Agnès Geoffray
Published by Textuel, 2025
