ELLES OBLIQUENT ELLES OBSTINENT ELLES TEMPÊTENT
In co-production with the Rencontres d’Arles festival, French artist Agnès Geoffray and curator Vanessa Desclaux present Elles obliquent elles obstinent elles tempêtent. This project was developed from institutional archives concerning the ‘preservation schools’ of Cadillac, Doullens and Clermont de l’Oise, public institutions for the placement of underage girls in France from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. The exploration of the lives of young girls labelled ‘deviant’ or ‘uneducable’ and locked up for several years has given rise to an installation that celebrates their forms of rebellion and their aspirations for emancipation.
Both poetic and political, the exhibition creates a dialogue between documents from various archives and photographs by Agnès Geoffray based on the themes of dissent (they deviate), rebellion (they rage) and escape (they flee).
