From July to September 2012, Soraya Hocine visited the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole, to shoot a series combining landscapes, architecture and self-portraits. Today, nearly a year later, this work has turned into an exhibition entitled “Will I be alive tomorrow rather than today ?”, on display at the Château de St. Alban-sur-Limagnole from June 14 to October 4, 2013. The exhibition features thirty black-and-white and color photographs Fresson prints.
Will I be alive tomorrow rather than today ?
Following a traumatic event which occurred in Paris, I settled in Lozère and started to reflect on myself through the eye of the camera. It was the beginning of an in-between, an informal need to explore my inner self ….
I did not know the Saint Alban Psychiatric Hospital in Limagnole before moving to Lozère. My first visit there dates back to March 2012. I did not look forward to that visit, as the representation I had of mental affliction in a hospital setting made me ill-at-ease.
I felt worried about the unknown, feared I might lose myself. I do not know what a mad person is, I do not know what it means to be mentally disturbed, but I do know about the Uniqueness of each Being.
“The Comb” is the name given to a ward that no longer exist since September (2012). An empty, voiceless place which still bears the indelible marks of past insanity. In that graceless, huge building with high windows, I felt as though time had stopped. I pictured nameless bodies wandering down the endless corridors – like an echo from the past.
Alienation has no face, no age and sex.
I chose my poses in relation with details from within .My body is one with the walls and give the impression of melting into the ruined building . I felt joy as I had become a physical representation of an in-between. I blissfully lost myself in the sinister construction, while contemplating my state of mental distraction, some evanescence invaded me, I am looking for the loss of identity.
These self-portraits, these photographs of my own body, sometimes nude, describes a certain vulnerability. To know myself, recognise myself, reclaim my body, my image – as a madman would …
Soraya Hocine
BIOGRAPHY :
Soraya Hocine is an independent photographer. She lives and works between the Lozère area (north of the Languedoc-Roussillon region) and Paris.
For over 10 years, she has worked regularly with the press, Le Monde 2, Télérama, Beaux-Arts Magazine … while pursuing personal projects.
Her work has been exhibited throughout France and Europe and has been acquired in public and private collections.
With “Will I live tomorrow rather than today,” Soraya Hocine goes deep into the heart of the place where the body and the walls melt and merge into the labyrinth of stories of the psychiatric hospital Saint-Alban.
Soraya Hocine: Serai je vivant demain plutôt qu’aujourd’hui ?
From June 14th to October 4th, 2013
Le Château
Rue de l’hôpital
48120 Saint Alban sur Limagnole
France
Monday – Saturday 9am -12pm & 2pm – 7pm
Tél: 33 (0)4 66 31 57 01
