For over a decade, the photographer Olivier Jobard (MYOP Agency), winner of the 2016 AFD (Agence France Développement) Photography Prize, has traveled in the company of migrants, the new wretched of the Earth. On dusty roads and seas, paved with suffering and disillusion, treaded by those who have hope as their only guide, Jobard has shared the lot of Afghan, Somali, Syrian, and Kosovar refugees, fleeing war and misery, and yet united by brotherly bonds.
Without pretense or needless aesthetic effects, he uses photographs to depict the long and perilous trek of men, women, and children escaping destitution across the sands of the African desert, along the gravel roads of Afghanistan, or yet sailing between the shores of the Mediterranean on fragile crafts threatening to capsize at any moment.
However, in an inventive and powerful installation designed by the curator of the exhibition at the Arsenal in Metz, Alain Mingam, L’Odyssée de l’Errance presents more than photographs; it also tells stories, moving human narratives which we are invited to study and share with others. Monumental prints, positioned at key points in the exhibition, give rhythm to the sequences, literally holding the viewers captive and physically drawing them into the heart of this anonymous, multifold odyssey, always framed at some distance, as close as possible to the breath of life and hope.
Screenings of Claire Billet’s documentary films, made at Olivier’s side, such as masterful Comme une pluie de parfum, resonate with the exhibition. The films bear witness to the artistic and active collaboration of the couple, attuned to the heartbeat of the world, to its suffering as well as to its humanity and fragile beauty. In their images, both artists offer a tender, attentive glance at those most destitute, at destinies tragically torn asunder by the upheavals of our shared history and tottering between dread and hope.
EXHIBITION
L’Odyssée de l’Errance
Olivier Jobard & Claire Billet
Curator : Alain Mingam
Until April 30th, 2016
Galerie de l’Arsenal – Metz
3 avenue Ney
57000 Metz
France
http://www.arsenal-metz.fr
Tuesday – Saturday 1pm – 6pm and Sunday 2pm – 6pm
