Cartographie de l’intime
With “Ce que la chair consent ; cartographie de l’intime” (What the flesh consents to; mapping the intimate), the artist offers a reflection on the body and the face as surfaces for inscription, territories where history, ritual, and time are deposited. Produced in Ethiopia, the series focuses on practices of body marking that engage the body not as a simple envelope, but as a symbolic space structured by transmission and belonging.
Far from a descriptive or ethnographic approach, these images shift the gaze towards a cartographic reading of the human body. Scarifications, marks, and folds in the skin function as landmarks, lines of force, and areas of density where individual experience and collective order intersect. The body thus appears as a lived territory, shaped by ancient but still active gestures.
The face occupies a central place in this cartography. It is the place where the intimate becomes visible, where memory is exposed without revealing itself entirely. Through close-up portraits, the artist reveals a sensitive topography, marked by time, vigilance, and presence. The face thus becomes a space of tension between identity, personal history, and social gaze.
Claire Petit
