L'ÉLÉGANCE DE VOS ABSENCES


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In October 2012, a few weeks before his death, Colonel Claude Mercier gave his children an envelope containing a manuscript. Six years later, his son Gilles, photographer, decided to pay tribute to his family and to all those forgotten in memory by creating a transdisciplinary artistic work.

Consisting of documentary photographs, handwritten and photographic family archives, illustrations (by Florent Bossard), a photographic film carried by original music (by Thibault Torzuoli), as well as of a 3D reconstruction (by Léo Redon), L’Élégance de vos absences takes us into the heart of a family drama, a dark reflector of History.

A self-taught photographer born in 1973, he moved to Paris in 1997 to enrich his technical photographic knowledg. He was part of different collectives, including LUMEN and SYNCROX.

Following various documentary work, he decided to play a full part in social welfare activity. He returned to photography in 2017 by producing the documentary “ZONA de ALB” in Romania, awarded and presented during various festivals such as the Festival Brassage photographique (Brussels), Barrobjectif (Barro) or Présences photographiques (Montélimar) and the Nuits de Pierrevert…

L’Élégance de vos absences / De meilleurs lendemains is the winner of the MonoVisons Photography Awards, finalist of the Nantes Photographic Fortnight, of the Talent Exchange in 2019 and of the Freelens Prix des Nouvelles Ecritures for photographic film.

photographs by Gilles MERCIER

From 17/04/2020 to 20/05/2020
LE SOUVENIR FRANÇAIS
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75017 PARIS
France

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