Barbara Sabaté Montoriol is due to publish her book Liste des choses oubliées (List of Forgotten Things) with Corridor Elephant. Launched on 8 June, the book is the result of a collaborative publishing effort, and the artist describes her project as follows:
‘After working on landscape, I wanted to explore a more intimate, inner territory. The prospect of taking a Fotomasterclass with Flore and Sylvie Hugues¹ compelled me to refine this project.
The idea for this series arose from a blend of impressions left by an exhibition, two bedside books, memories of my grandmother with whom I spent almost all my time as a child and the desire to find the words to express them.
I was deeply impressed by the major exhibition at the Louvre, *Les Choses, Une histoire de la nature morte* (Things: A History of Still Life), curated by the art historian Laurence Bertrand Dorléac in 2022. The idea of paying tribute to my grandmother by observing and capturing images of the ‘Things’ she loved thus came to me.
Can images be read in the same way as a text?
I conceived this series as an attempt to answer that question by writing a poetic list, inspired by two books that I particularly love.
In the early years of the 11th century in Japan, Sei Shônagon, a lady-in-waiting at the Heian imperial court, wrote *The Pillow Book*³ in the form of lists. One of these is entitled: ‘Things that make the heart beat’.
So I began to write a list that evolved as the photographs were taken and the editing progressed, keeping in mind the spirit of Umberto Eco’s *The Vertigo of the List*⁴.
For me, this writing project, this *List of Forgotten Things*, and the photographs are inseparable.”
List of Forgotten Things
Marianna’s gaze
A Chinese tea set
Two porcelain birds facing each other
A shell veined with pink
Persephone’s bird
A glass bubble on a Chinese plinth
An English teapot with a curved spout
Two joined pieces of coral
Three tiny vases
Half a black lemon
Aphrodite’s cheek in a resting hand
The imprint of a large shell
A bruised fig
Two birds facing each other under a glass dome
A polished pewter coffee set
A forgotten half-pear
Urania’s lightly touched lip
The reflection of two birds facing each other
A bouquet of forgotten feathers
A languid shell
A crimson pomegranate
The bouquet of forgotten tulips
The reflection of a peacock feather
A panther-patterned shell
A winged lemon
Leto’s nape, encircled by one hand
A dancing silver teapot
A wet sea urchin’s eye
Marguerite’s face
A large white coral
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