"The project was born out of a desire to fill the gaps in the representations of sexual minorities and queer identities, to reclaim a place in the public space as well as in the history of art. To fight against erasure, using photography as both a medium of revelation and archive."
Artist: Bérangère Fromont
Project: L'amour seul brisera nos cœurs
"This work focuses on the representation of lesbians at the intersection of several discriminations. Underrepresented, invisibilised, fetichized, distorted in art and society. It will be about love and revolution. Being a lesbian has already been a resistant body. Falling in love is a resistant act. What all minorities have in common is this aspiration to inhabit spaces that an adverse reality denies them. For a couple of women, public space is war. Moreover, the queer body is an open target for violence.
I invite volunteers -their participation in the project becomes by the same token a political act- to come and perform their love and their relationship to the outside space in front of the camera at night in the streets of Paris. I provoke a situation of tension in which couples are also active and creators of images. These images then become the material with which I work: I reframe, I cut out, I make sequences. I construct and deconstruct like a sculptor with a block of marble."
"In the 19th century, homosexuality was invented as a crime and mental illness in Europe. In 2018, while marriage and laws protected us, violent homophobic acts increased in France by 34.3%. Homosexuality still triggers as much hatred and rejection. I provoke a situation of tension in which the couples are also active and creators of the images. My limits are ethical, linked to my relationship with the model. I am very careful about my place as a photographer, as a viewer. I believe that in order to talk about minorities, the place of the photographer and the person photographed must be equal.
As a member of the community myself, i only feel legitimate in telling a story that is close to my own experience. The representation of lesbians in my youth did not exist. Gender minorities are invisible in history and in art history. As a queer photographer I chose to reverse this. The outside world is invisibilized. It is time to create our own archive by producing our own visual narratives away from the usual fantasized narratives of the uninvolved and to impose them. Some of them didn't even dare to stand in the public space. Others on the contrary were in the affrmation of their love or even provocation.
I was interested in the relationship to the outside space. I showed couples forced to hide in the streets, the occupation of space as a threat. Falling in love for queer people is a resitant act. Hiding bodies and gender. The hooded sweatshirt as a camoufage accessory and an indispensable armour for going out in Paris. But also as a sign of recognition."
© Bérangère Fromont
Editor : Kiko