Liberty I picture your names. A folio to commemorate "Je suis Charlie".

The 4th work I presented was a folio of eight pages called « Liberty, I picture your names ». This is the biggest enterprise I undertook in photography and it takes its origin in the poem of Paul Eluard and its illustration by Fernand Leger in the 60s. It shows the complete basement of the statue of the Place de la République. The 21 panoramic bands present all the testimonies of the people. Each band corresponds to one strophe of the poem. The number of pages also reminds the numbers of illustrated pages by Leger. The background I illustrated with my "panoroïds" of foliage taken in Autumn 2015. Certain people have left flowers, drawings, poems,photos or candles. I leave my "panaroïds".

The job to build this folio was huge. I first needed to associate the photos using Photoshop to produce the merge and correct the circular lines. Then, I had to find a correct length for the bands. Each band is different in length like the verses of a poem which do not contain the same number of letters.  Once the panoramas were build I had to form the pages of the folio and select the two images that would illustrate the background.

Initially I intended to present the complete poem in one textile band like a « Kakemono » but the cost of it obliged to choose a more modest presentation as a folio to begin with.
I was not in Paris during the exhibition, but was present at the varnishing. Like always I had no comment about this work. The only comments I got were related to the poor presentation I had choosen for the 3 bands. Today the artist is confronted to a gap of culture in art from the public. It is no need to invest oneself too much in a message for the others, if you do something, you do it only for you. In my case it was a necessity to me to reply to the monstrousnesss of the terrorist acts with something out of the common. My response is similar to the actions of many people who to overcome their rage produced something to transform their pain or anger in something more positive in order to express that " they" had lost in their objective, and that our values are stronger.

I am certain that no one produced such a work. If you look at the messages deposited in the basement of the statue you will have the real meaning of liberty. Certain refer to the liberty of Love, other privilege the religion, and so on. Each contribution is an example of our public tolerance.  You might think that this is not special, but at the moment I write this text on 8th May, everything has disappeared. So this folio is history and memory now.

I produced two samples of the folio one was exhibited in the « Je suis Artist » show of the A.A.B. Gallery. The second has been given to an auction organized to support the victims of the November events. Today I have no news of the second sample. This folio will be presented in the other events. It is priced 150 €.