Mare-Mater, Patrick Zachmann
From June 2013 until the end of January 2014, the Georges Henri Rivière Building of the Mucem hosts four photography and video exhibitions in coproduction with Marseille-Provence 2013, European Capital of Culture and the museum Nicéphore Niépce in the city of Chalon-sur-Saône.
Through videos and photographs Patrick Zachmann, a member of Magnum Photos, confronts his own family history with that of migrants of today. He addresses in particular their relationship to the sea that they traverse and the mother that they leave.
This project has a self-evident character. Patrick Zachmann must return and again see his Mediterranean. This is where his family lived; this is where he was confronted with the contradictions of the world. The exhibition of the Mucem proved to be an opportunity; a chance to confront the work of a photographer in the family biography. By a coincidence, a ruse of history, the Mediterranean was enflamed at the moment when the past resurfaced. This journal compares diverse moments of history during the most intimate moments.
“This is a journey, a journey of memory and a voyage of exiles. It is also an interior journey. The voice that carries this trip is that of my logbook. It is she that will weave the thread of all the these destinies that I cross, the migrants leaving their country from the southern shore of the Mediterranean, fleeing unemployment, the dictator, no future, women, mothers, who let them go or discover that they have left, and I, searching for the roots of my mother, those that she wanted to forget.”
The story develops around this relationship between mother and son, man and woman. Beyond his travels in Tunisia, Algeria, Greece and Malta, Patrick Zachmann does not forget to mention Marseille as the central location, the culmination of all migrations, point of healing and tension.
The exhibition is concentrated around a film projected in triptych. On three screens, through an original and captivating montage and moments familial and intimate, testimonies of migrants and their families will succeed one another, in sequences mingling doubt and hope. In parallel, a wall of photographs retraces this poignant inquiry thus comparing in the same space the lively character of the moving image with the power of the still image.
From June 2013 until the end of January 2014, the Georges Henri Rivière Building of the Mucem hosts four photography and video exhibitions in coproduction with Marseille-Provence 2013, European Capital of Culture and the museum Nicéphore Niépce in the city of Chalon-sur-Saône.
Through videos and photographs Patrick Zachmann, a member of Magnum Photos, confronts his own family history with that of migrants of today. He addresses in particular their relationship to the sea that they traverse and the mother that they leave.
This project has a self-evident character. Patrick Zachmann must return and again see his Mediterranean. This is where his family lived; this is where he was confronted with the contradictions of the world. The exhibition of the Mucem proved to be an opportunity; a chance to confront the work of a photographer in the family biography. By a coincidence, a ruse of history, the Mediterranean was enflamed at the moment when the past resurfaced. This journal compares diverse moments of history during the most intimate moments.
“This is a journey, a journey of memory and a voyage of exiles. It is also an interior journey. The voice that carries this trip is that of my logbook. It is she that will weave the thread of all the these destinies that I cross, the migrants leaving their country from the southern shore of the Mediterranean, fleeing unemployment, the dictator, no future, women, mothers, who let them go or discover that they have left, and I, searching for the roots of my mother, those that she wanted to forget.”
The story develops around this relationship between mother and son, man and woman. Beyond his travels in Tunisia, Algeria, Greece and Malta, Patrick Zachmann does not forget to mention Marseille as the central location, the culmination of all migrations, point of healing and tension.
The exhibition is concentrated around a film projected in triptych. On three screens, through an original and captivating montage and moments familial and intimate, testimonies of migrants and their families will succeed one another, in sequences mingling doubt and hope. In parallel, a wall of photographs retraces this poignant inquiry thus comparing in the same space the lively character of the moving image with the power of the still image.