PARIS.- A poignant and evocative exhibition has opened at the Centre d'art Ygrec – ENSAPC, exploring the layered memories and hidden stories of a patch of land in Paris slated for development. "The language of dreams is not in the words, but beneath them," wrote Walter Benjamin, and this sentiment resonates deeply with the exhibition, which uses a variety of media to unearth the "silent continuity of a flow" of history and experience.
The story begins in 2020, when the artists began to explore a neglected plot of land, a 7,000 square meter space teeming with trees and plants that grew around tennis courts and a parking lot, a small remnant of a rural village swallowed by the expanding city. Over four years, they returned to this "plot," observing the changing seasons, the play of light and shadow, and the quiet resilience of nature in the heart of urban Paris. This exploration became a journey into memory, both personal and collective, a way to connect with the unseen history of the land and its past inhabitants.
The exhibition isn't a straightforward historical account. Instead, it's a poetic exploration, a weaving together of personal experiences, philosophical reflections inspired by Walter Benjamin, and the tangible remnants of the land itself. The artists explain their work as an attempt to "honor the memory of the nameless," to illuminate the presences that linger in the landscape, bridging the "here and elsewhere."
This artistic quest led them beyond the Parisian plot. Seeking another place imbued with memory, they traveled to Portbou, Spain, the site of Walter Benjamin's exile and death. This journey connected the Parisian plot, now destined to become the new home of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts de Paris-Cergy in 2026, with Benjamin's own history and the broader themes of displacement and loss.
The exhibition space at the Centre d'art Ygrec has been transformed into a "living archive," a testament to the artists' encounters with these layered landscapes. Sixty-seven rubbings of tree bark, taken from nearly every tree on the Parisian plot before construction began and from trees along the path to Portbou, hang on the walls. These rubbings, made on fabric, become more than just representations of bark; they become portraits of individual trees, each with its own story to tell. The artists reflect on the impossibility of capturing the entirety of a tree's being, much like a face, a bark is alive and shelters other lives within.
The archive also includes clay made from the earth of the Parisian plot, images, sounds, texts, documents, films, and performances – fragments of a lived experience. These pieces become "proofs of existence," not just of the trees and the land, but of the human connection to them. The artists share a particularly poignant moment when they witnessed the burning of forests near the French-Spanish border, understanding the fragility of the ecosystem.
A wooden structure, crafted from reclaimed wood from the trees of the Parisian plot, stands in the center of the gallery. This structure, a collective creation from the ENSAPC wood workshop, houses the tree bark rubbings and acts as a "strange library," preserving a piece of the school's history. It's a place for reflection, a space to consider the future while honoring the past.
This exhibition is more than just a display of art; it's an act of remembrance, a way to connect with the layers of history that lie beneath the surface of our everyday lives. It asks us to consider how we inhabit space, how we build our world, and how we remember the stories of the places we call home. The exhibition is open now at the Centre d'art Ygrec – ENSAPC.
