La place d'Elena

2019

Installation
Photograph printed on blue backing paper, stuck to the front window of a disused building in Montpellier, 272 x 260 cm

As part of the exhibition 100 artistes dans la ville, from 8th june to 28th july 2019, artistic direction Nicolas Bourriaud

Production MO.CO., Montpellier, france
Installation produced with the support of SERM

The square in front of the new market halls is not yet completely tidy.

An abandoned sign, posters stuck on and peeled off, the menu of the day and its extendable terrace, the precarious occupation of the Carrefour entrance, a construction site still in progress and other elements make up the environment in which a borrowed image is placed.

We see a wobbly chair which, far from those found on film sets, is nevertheless inscribed with the name of its user, signifying Elena’s place - in a neighbourhood of Mexico City - and the place that everyone carves out for themselves wherever they can.

This installation went through various stages during its exhibition in public space. Graffiti was added to that already present in the photograph, some in the same colour, amplifying the trompe l’oeil effect of the scene reproduced on a scale of 1:1. On the day of the official inauguration in the square, the image appeared ‘cleaned up’, with the real or photographed graffiti covered with white paint. The municipal wall cleaning service left only the chair visible, on which I re-inscribed Elena’s missing name. The photographic documentation I produced each day was pasted in the form of A3 posters on the whitewashed wall of the image. Finally, the original photograph was reinstalled in its place and, little by little, new graffiti appeared above the subject.

Elena’s square was visible at No. 5 Place Alexandre Laissac.