Who are the masked actors in your scenes?
The actors behind the masks are kids: mine, mostly, but also their friends.
I am a compulsive player, I love games. I play chess every day.
My children and I love to discover new ones: we buy them, or we make them up.
Lost is one of those we created.
The pictures are taken at night, in different locations. How did
these games start, under what circumstances are they created? Is there a
story being played out?
We discovered these masks during a party at a friend’s house and I
immediately borrowed them (I’ve still not given them back!). I bought
other masks online to complete the set. When we were travelling, we all
had to carry our mask with us.
What the kids prefer is when we organize a parent-free stay in a country house, somewhere in the middle of the Poitou forest.
... You talk as if you were one of them ...
I’m the only adult, but I have to behave like a child: not force them to
go to bed, eat anything we like, think only of playing. The other
parents don’t know what we’re up to: the only constraint is that we have
to tidy up before we leave.
It was on these trips that it all started. The children didn’t want to
go to bed, so we decided to go for a night walk in the forest with our
masks and take weird pictures. I was alone in handling the technical
aspects, although they all helped me with the lighting, and we decided
on the scenes together. We went to bed very late: sometimes, some of the
kids fell asleep on a heap of leaves while the others were still
posing.
Later, we travelled to India and Vietnam with our masks. The children
would wear them in broad daylight, in the middle of a crowd: it became a
game to break the ice.
These images feel very unusual for anyone familiar with your other work.
Did you feel the need to embark on a more laidback project, a sort of
playtime break?
I suppose you could call this series a break, as it is a moment set
aside for children to play.
Lost is a personal moment I dedicated to my
kids and me to have fun together.
I like being called “childish”: I take it as a compliment, I feel
reassured, I stop feeling that I’m growing old. The world of old and
serious people is so sad! It’s all so negative. Children project
themselves into the future, into imaginary worlds, unlike adults who see
the future without invention and with a much darker vision. Politicians
are a perfect illustration of what I find depressing and distressing:
old, sad, no imagination… I think a stint in a childlike environment
would do them a world of good.
Limited edition, numbered and signed.