En Somme
Alexa Brunet / Transit
For one year, in the French département of the Somme, between Albert, Péronne and Chaulnes, I was with the young people of a forgotten region “where the poppies have nicely wilted”. This work was part of a series of residences on the rural community, in partnership with Diaphane, a photographic centre in Picardie 2.
“I live in Albert, a flowery town destroyed in the war, built-up but countrified, where voters of Le Pen do not hide. There’s something for everyone: you’ve always a drunk if you want to have a drink, a marble fountain, a cemetery in cement. There’s paintball but it’s closed, a skatepark not too close. There are bars to get pissed in, a club to get your faced smashed in. There are hairdressers’, bakers’, hairdressers’, a bookmaker’s next to a hairdresser’s, a poodle parlour to become a hairdresser’s, in Albert you sure can get your new hairstyle. Albert says hello, wherever you come from you’re more than welcome. You want a change of scene – be our guest, we’ve got tons of it. Here, there’s no less than 10,000 people, Brazilian heat with 10 degrees, you’re glad, the weather’s shite, but when I look up, why would I believe in God, I don’t even believe in the sun. Don’t know what you can do here, apart from visiting a cathedral and a war museum. The oldies are all around, there are flowers in every street. The poppy country has nicely wilted. I’ve seen worse than your estate, don’t play the victim, man, it’s called Albert, it’s the outskirts of the outskirts. In the land of dung, you’ve got the knack, you speak yokel, and you wake up in a haystack. Roundabouts on the horizon, nothing to do except try to kill yourself with a stone. You’d feel like a cow here, you’ll see when the farmer’s wife tries to milk you. 1”
1 Extract from the album ‘T’as l’bonjour d’Albert’ (Albert says hello) by Keep It Real, the hip-hop group from Albert.
2 www.diaphane.org
